J ij ??"■ 




FAMOUS WOMEN OF THE FRENCH COURT. 

From the French of Imbert de Saint-Amand. 

Each with Portrait, 12mo, $1.25. 
Three Volumes on Marie Antoinette. 

MARIE ANTOINETTE AND THE END OF THE OLD REGIME. 

MARIE ANTOINETTE AT THE TUILERIES (In press). 

MARIE ANTOINETTE AND THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY (in press). 

Three Volumes on the Empress Josephine. 

CITIZENESS BONAPARTE. 

THE WIFE OF THE FIRST CONSUL. 

THE COURT OF THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE. 

. Four Volumes on the Empress Marie Louise. 

THE HAPPY DAYS OF MARIE LOUISE. 
MARIE LOUISE AND THE DECADENCE OF THE EMPIRE. 
MARIE LOUISE AND THE INVASION OF 1814. 

MARIE LOUISE, THE RETURN FROM ELBA AND THE HUNDRED DAYS 

(In press). 




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MARIE LOUISE 



THE INVASION OF 1814 



BY 



IMBERT DE SAINT-AMAND 

TRANSLATED BY 
THOMAS SERGEANT PERRY 



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WITH PORTRAIT 






NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

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COPYRIGHT, 189I, 
BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS. 



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THE LIBRART| 
OFCONGRCCS 

IwAsmtfOToir 



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CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Opening of the Campaign 1 

II. The First Fortnight of February 11 

III. The Second Fortnight of February 23 

IV. The First Fortnight of March 44 

V. The Chatillon Congress 57 

VI. Arcis-sur-Aube 82 

VII. The March to the East 90 

VIII. Paris at the End of March 102 

IX. The Regent's Flight 119 

X. The Battle of Paris 126 

XI. Napoleon at the Fountains of Juvisy 139 

XII. The Regency in Flight 147 

XIII. Napoleon at Fontainebleau 155 

XIV. The First Abdication 170 

XV. The Defection of Essonnes 180 

XVI. The Second Abdication 204 

XVII. The Empress's Anguish 217 

XVIII. Marie Louise at Orleans 238 

iii 



IV CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER PAGB 

XIX. The Attempt at Suicide 248 

XX. The Last Week at Fontainebleau 258 

XXI. The Leave-taking at Fontainebleau 266 

XXIL The Journey to Elba 272 

XXIII. The Last Days of Marie Louise in France 284 



MARIE LOUISE 

AND 

THE INVASION OF 1814 



' MARIE LOUISE 

AND 

THE INVASION OF 1814. 
I. 

THE OPENING OF THE CAMPAIGN. 

THE description of Paris and of the army during 
the invasion is gloomy and painful reading. 
The Parisians, with few exceptions, manifested no 
heroism. In spite of the urgent danger, all the 
theatres remained open. The capital, with its usual 
frivolity, showed none of the deep feeling which 
promises obstinate resistance. The prevailing im- 
pression was one of weariness with war. Treason 
was everywhere latent, obviously awaiting only a 
good opportunity for breaking out. The National 
Guard refused to march outside of the city. The 
officials took more thought of themselves than of 
their country. Whether Napoleon or the foreigners 
should be applauded depended only on the chances 
of war. Paris, alternating between groundless hopes 
and the blackest despair, never faced the situation 
fairly. All those that had been expelled by the 
police returned in the general confusion, asserting 

1 



THE INVASION OF 18 14. 



that they would have been deemed criminal if they 
had remained in the departments occupied by the 
enemy. People came from a distance of more than 
thirty leagues to find safety for their family and their 
belongings in the capital. The farmers of the neigh- 
borhood drove in their herds and flocks to the suburbs. 
The population suddenly increased enormously, and 
space was lacking for the new arrivals. The most 
disturbing rumors were everywhere current, spread- 
ing gloom and discouragement. In drawing-rooms, 
in shops, in the streets, there was endless discussion 
of the impending catastrophe. As was said by the 
Duke of Rovigo, at that time Minister of Police, 
coercion would have hastened a revolution, and the 
slightest consolation that could be given to the suffer- 
ing multitude was to leave it free to indulge in lam- 
entations ; there was no lack of grounds for numerous 
arrests, but, in justice, the prisons would have had to 
be doubled, to hold all those more or less deserving 
of incarceration. 

The army, inspired by a patriotism more fervent 
than that of the Parisians, did its duty and more than 
its duty. It fought and suffered with a heroism worthy 
of a better fate. It is hard to say which were the 
more admirable, the beardless youths or the gray- 
haired veterans. Men like them would have saved 
France, if France could have been saved ; but, in spite 
of their tireless energy, their indomitable courage, 
they felt that they were doomed by fate. Napoleon, 
with all his genius, knew no more of those lucky, 



THE OPENING OF THE CAMPAIGN. 3 

almost miraculous chances which had so often saved 
him from apparently certain ruin at the beginning of 
his career. The setting of the sun bore no likeness 
to its rising, and soon there was to fall the night in 
which the Imperial star was extinct. 

Nevertheless, the opening of the campaign showed 
no lack of brilliancy. Napoleon, who had left Paris, 
in the morning of January 25, 1814, reached Chalons- 
sur-Marne the same day. His generals said he must 
have brought troops with him. " No," he answered 
coolly ; and then when they were in consternation at 
this confession he filled them with new hope by his 
bold plans. "No one is ever beaten unless by his 
own consent. Doubtless we shall have dark days, 
when we shall have but one man against three, or 
even four ; but we used to do that when we were 
young, and we ought to know how to do it now that 
we are old. . . . We have won every form of glory ; 
we must win the last which is the crown of all ; that 
is, to face bad luck and triumph over it." 

The next day, Wednesday, January 26, at n'oon, 
Empress Marie Louise, surrounded by the princes of 
the Imperial family, the high dignitaries, the Minis- 
ters, the high officers, the Grand Eagles of the 
Legion of Honor, the ladies and officers in waiting, 
received, in the Throne Room at the Tuileries, a 
deputation of the National Guard of Paris. Marshal 
Moncey, Duke of Conegliano, presented her with an 
address : " Madame," he said, " His Majesty the Em- 
peror and King has deigned to permit his faithful 



THE INVASION OF 1814. 



subjects, the officers of the National Guard of Paris, 
to lay before the throne the expression of their love ; 
and fidelity. These they have endeavored to express : 
in this way : Sire, on his departure to assume com- 
mand of the armies, Your Majesty confides his be- 
loved wife, his son, the nation's hope, and entrusts 
the security, the tranquillity of the capital, to our 
love, our fidelity, our courage. Your noble words, 
Sire, have found an echo in our hearts. Would that 
they had been heard as well in the remotest corners 
of France ! . . . Depart, Sire, with confidence. Let 
no disquiet about the fate of what you and we hold 
most dear, trouble your great thoughts. Go with 
our sons and brothers to drive away the assembled 
forces of the enemy ravaging our provinces. To the 
strength of your troops and to the power of your 
genius, we shall add the power of public spirit, 
aroused by our country's danger, by the might of 
national pride, indignant at the insolent pride of the 
foreigners, and very soon the enemy will recognize 
the imprudence of their undertaking and the falsity 
of their hopes. . . . On receiving the crown, Sire, 
you received also our oaths. We lay them once more 
before Your Majesty, before your revered wife, so 
worthy of your love and of ours. . . . Before the 
cradle of your august son, Madame, we beg Your 
Majesty to convey the expression of our feelings to 
your august spouse." 

They were hastening to burn what was left of the 
Imperial incense ; soon they were to be offering it 
before the Royalists. 



THE OPENING OF THE CAMPAIGN. b 

January 27, at eight in the morning, Napoleon 
entered Saint Dizier. On seeing him, the despondent 
populace took new courage and became more hopeful. 
A letter from this place, dated January 28, was 
printed in the Moiiiteur. It ran thus : " The enemy 
were here two days ago, committing deeds of violence, 
respecting neither age nor sex. Women and old men 
were exposed to their insults and maltreatment. The 
arrival yesterday of the French troops put an end to 
our sufferings. The Emperor's entry was the occa- 
sion of most touching scenes. The whole populace 
gathered about him ; all our sufferings were forgotten. 
An old colonel, M. Bouland, who is seventy years of 
age, threw himself at his feet which he bedewed with 
tears of joy, and gave expression both to all the grief 
that a brave soldier must feel at seeing his native 
land polluted by the presence of the enemy, and his 
joy at seeing them in flight before the Imperial 
eagles." 

Napoleon, with all the ardor of his youth, ma- 
noeuvred to prevent the junction of the army of 
Silesia, commanded by Bliicher, with that of Bohemia, 
commanded by Schwarzenberg. For the conflict he 
had but fifty thousand men to oppose to the two 
hundred and thirty thousand of the enemy ; neverthe- 
less he was full of confidence. His plan was to throw 
himself on the flank of the forces of the Coalition, to 
surprise them by this attack, which should disconcert 
and possibly destroy the enemy. That is why he 
left the Marne, turning suddenly to the right, towards 



THE INVASION OF 18 U. 



the Aube. His aim was Brienne, which Bliicher was 
passing through at that moment. He made his wayl 
through the dark forest by a straight road which 
favored his impatience. At Maizi^res, a village 
near Brienne, he said to the National Guards, who 
were crowding about him : '' We fight to-day for our j 
firesides, and must defend them well, and not let the ■ 
Cossacks get to them. They are wretched guests,, 
and will not leave any room for you. Let us show 
them that every Frenchman is born a soldier, and a 
good soldier." 

The Emperor recognized the cur^ of Maizi^res as 
one of his former regents of the College of Brienne. 
" What ! It's you, my dear master ! " he exclaimed. 
" So you have never left the country ? So much the 
better ! You will be all the more competent to serve 
the nation. I needn't ask if you know the neighbor- 
hood." " Sire, I could find my way everywhere blind- 
folded." " Then come -with us ; you will be our 
guide, and we can talk." The old cur^ mounted the 
horse of Roustan the Mameluke and became the 
guide of the army. 

January 29, was fought the battle of Brienne, be- 
tween Napoleon and Bliicher. The town, divided 
into four sections by two intersecting streets, was 
lost and taken several times. One moment the Em- 
peror thought that Bliicher had been made prisoner. 
" We've got the old swordsman ! " he shouted ; " the 
campaign will be a short one." But he was mistaken ; 
the Prussian general had not been captured ; he was 



THE OPENi^'G OF THE CAMPAIGN. 7 

retreating. The French conscripts, though the enemy 
was two to one, finally defeated the veterans of the 
Coalition. 

January 31, 1814, Napoleon wrote from Brienne to 
his brother Joseph : " The affair at Brienne was very 
hot. I lost three thousand men, and the enemy four or 
five thousand. I pursued the enemy half-way to Bar- 
sur-Aube. I had the bridges over the Aube, which had 
been burned, repaired. A minute more and General 
Bliicher with his whole staff would have been cap- 
tured. The nephew of Chancellor von Hardenberg 
was captured by their side ; they were on foot and 
did not know that I was with the army. Since this 
fight, our troops have a high reputation with the 
Allies, who had doubted of their existence. . . . This 
battle, the position of our armies, and their reputa- 
tion, may hasten a peace. It would be well for the 
Paris newspapers to speak of the preparations for 
defence and of the arrival of many troops from all 
quarters." 

After the battle, Napoleon established his head- 
quarters in the castle of Brienne, where he spent two 
nights. "During this stay," says Constant, his valet 
de chambre, " I recalled that of ten years earlier at 
this same castle, when he was on his way to Milan to 
add the title of King of Italy to that of Emperor 
of the French. Now, I said to myself, not only is 
Italy lost to him, but in the middle of the French 
Empire, only a few leagues from his capital, the Em- 
peror is defending himself from numberless enemies. 



8 T3E INVASION OF ISU. 

Most of those with him, accustomed to count on his 
good fortune, still trusted to it ; yet we could not 
deny that there had been a great change. It was very 
plain that we were in front of a mass of foreigners 
whom hitherto we had seen only in their own coun- 
tries, and who now were in our country in their turn." 

General de Segur also describes Napoleon returning 
after so many distant victories to the military school 
of Brienne, where he had spent his youth, and finding 
it ravaged, filled with corpses, littered with ruins. 
Then the battle-worn soldier was moved. He meditated 
on the many evils of which he was the main cause, and 
yearned to repair them. To console the inhabitants 
for their losses he lavished money out of his own 
purse. Hearing that many young and beautiful 
women had in their terror sought refuge in the cel- 
lars of the castle, he had them brought out, and con- 
soled them himself, inviting them to dine at his own 
table. He told them that he would rebuild the town, 
that he would buy the castle and turn it into a fine 
military establishment, or, rather, into an Imperial 
palace. After dinner, memories of his boyhood re- 
curred to him, and he talked for some time, ending 
with this melancholy exclamation : " Could I have 
imagined then that I should have to defend this town 
against the Russians!" 

At Brienne, in the severe winter of 1783, he had 
made bastions, parapets, and trenches in the snow, 
and divided the pupils into two camps. He made 
himself commander-in-chief of the besieging forces 



THE OPENING OF THE CAMPAIGN. 9 

and led them to the attack with such vigor that the 
game had to be stopped, many of the contestants 
having received real wounds. Alas ! how many other 
men was he to have killed or wounded in his terrible 
career I When he recalled the winter of 1783, did 
he think of the winter of 1812? 

" When we Avere at Malmaison," says Bourrienne, 
" how often, when we were walking in the path lead- 
ing to the plain of Rueil, did the village bell inter- 
rupt our most serious conversations ! Bonaparte used to 
stop in order not to lose any of the sound, in which he 
delighted. It used to impress him so strongly that 
he would say to me, with emotion : ' That recalls my 
first years at Brienne. Then I was happy ! ' When 
the sound was silent, he would resume his vast reve- 
ries." Yes, then he was happy ! But when his dreams 
had come true, when he had attained an immense, 
unrivalled glory, and torrents of blood had been shed, 
what did it avail him? The plain uniform of the 
pupil was better than coronation robes ; the innocence 
of childhood better than the conqueror's pride ! His 
thoughts must have been bitter; his remorse, keen. 

But the noise of battle soon interrupted Napoieon's 
reveries. From the hill of Brienne he looked down 
on the plain of Rothi^re, where, January 31, the two 
armies confronted each other. The battle was to be 
fought the next day, with all the chances against the 
thirty-seven thousand Frenchmen, who had to con- 
tend with one hundred and fifty thousand of the 
enemy. The sky was dark ; the snow was falling 



10 THE INVASION OF ISU. 

heavily. January was going out in gloom, and 
the month of February was to be even more ter- 
rible. It was with a certain satisfaction that Paris 
had heard of the success at Brienne, but optimism 
was not common. The disasters had been too fre- 
quent for any confidence to be felt in Napoleon's star. 
The newspapers in the pay of the government in vain 
sought to arouse confidence ; confidence did not 
come at command. The same distress filled the 
Emperor's headquarters and the Tuileries. Even 
Marie Louise, in spite of the atmosphere of flattery 
in which she lived, in spite of the pains taken to 
conceal or to lessen every painful truth, was anxious 
and alarmed. Chamberlains, ministers, officials, try 
as they might, could not wear the confident look of 
earlier days. All these frightened courtiers resembled 
a band of stray actors who do not know whether the 
theatre they are playing in one evening will admit 
them the next. 



II. 

THE FIRST FORTNIGHT OF FEBRUARY. 

nVTO drama is more crowded with incident and 
-LM anguish than is the campaign of 1814, a bitter 
struggle between despair and hope, between the force 
of events and genius. Neither Champaubert nor 
Montmirail, those days of miracles, were to save the 
Empire ; yet what glory there was in the disasters 
of this fatal and memorable war! Meissonier, the 
artist who has at times done such great painting on 
minute canvases, has reproduced better than any one 
the sombre and austere poetry of this unhappy period. 
His Napoleon on horseback, sad and solemn, in a col- 
orless plain half covered with snow, is advancing 
slowly, as if clogged by fate. His generals are fol- 
lowing him in silence ; their sturdy but sad faces show 
that only their heroism preserves them from discour- 
agement. All the sufferings and all the deceptions 
of France violated, invaded, mutilated, seem to be 
united in this picture, which inspires a feeling of patri- 
otic pity. The conqueror's faults are forgotten, his 
contempt for human life, his grand but futile plans, 
his haughtiness, only equalled by his genius ; the 

11 



12 THE INVASION OF ISI4. 

despot yields to the soldier; we pity his anguish 
because it is not that of a common man, even of a 
monarch, but that of an entire nation. The separa- 
tion of some of the provinces from France was like 
maiming the Emperor himself. Madame de Str/Jl, 
his implacable foe, said: "Bonaparte's campaign 
against the Allies, in the winter of 1814, is generally 
recognized as yqyj fine, and even the Frenchmen 
whom he had proscribed could not keep from wish- 
ing that he might succeed in saving the independence 
of their country." It was a vigorous and obstinate 
defence that he made, one directed by a sure hand. 
In his wrath with fickle fortune, Napoleon fought 
with indignation and rage. The insulting proposi- 
tions of European diplomacy aroused his wrath to 
such a degree of fury that his energy became more 
than human in his struggle, not merely against fate, 
but against remorse, against his conscience, which 
reproached him bitterly for having gone to Moscow to 
arouse the Cossacks and to tempt them to the banks 
of the Seine. In his petty army, tried by sublime 
devotion and courage, were heroes, some with smooth 
faces, others with gray beards ; there were young 
men with the same fervor as the young men of 1792, 
veterans whom misfortune, after so much glory, 
found firm and indomitable. As Lacordaire said in 
his funeral oration over General Drouot : " The hour 
for great souls is that when everything is lost I " 

February opened disastrously ; on the first day of 
the month Napoleon lost the battle of Rothi^re: 



THE FIRST FOliTNIGUT OF FEBHUAUY. 13 

thirty-seven thousand men could not triumph over 
one hundred and fifty thousand. Though defeated, 
the great general remained impassible amid a storm 
of bullets and cannon-balls, saying to those who 
urged his withdrawal to a place of safety, "No; 
leave me alone; don't you know that our days are 
numbered?" In the night it was only with difficulty 
that he decided to beat a retreat. So great remained 
his ascendancy over his enemies that they did not 
pursue him ; they could not believe in their own suc- 
cess, and when the sun rose in the morning of Feb- 
ruary 2, it was an hour before the sight of the vast 
empty plain convinced them of their victory. 

February 3, King Joseph wrote to the Emperor: 
" Yesterday and the day before there was too much 
confidence ; to-day there is too little. To-day I have 
visited the outposts on the left bank ; they will be in 
readiness in three days. I was much pleased with 
the aspect of the suburbs." And February 5 : " To-day 
I found much despondency, and I had great difficulty 
in encouraging a number of persons. I have seen 
the Empress twice, and I left her in a calmer state 
last evening; she had just received a letter from 
Your Majesty in which mention was made of the 
Congress. If Your Majesty should meet with serious 
reverses, what form of government should be left 
here to prevent conspirators from heading a move- 
ment? Jerome asks me what is to be done in this 
case. Men are coming, but we have no money for 
their equipment." 



14 THE INVASION OF 18U. 

Every day swelled the general alarm. Napoleon 
wrote from Troyes, to Joseph, February 6 : " Have 
everything valuable removed from Fontainebleau, and 
especially everything that might figure as a trophy, 
yet Avithout stripping the palace." The same day 
the Emperor, hearing that the invaders were out- 
flanking him and moving towards Paris, perceived 
that he had to leave Troyes. Thirteen leagues of 
territory were abandoned by this retreat. The sol- 
diers marched in utter gloom. " When are we to 
halt?" was the question on every one's lips. The 
7th they reached Nogent, where, for a few hours, 
everything seemed hopeless. Napoleon was dis- 
traught by the necessity of thinking of the capital, 
alive with Royalist intrigue; of the battle-fields, 
where he was perpetually risking his own life and 
the future of France ; of the Congress of Chatillon, 
where negotiations were going on while the armies 
were fighting, and whence came propositions, each 
more humiliating than the one before. It was hard 
for him to keep his head amid so many dangers. Bad 
news arrived from every quarter of the Empire, like 
birds of evil 'omen crowding to a single spot. Two 
hundred and fifty thousand Frenchmen were scattered 
about most needlessly, — fifty thousand on the Elbe, 
one hundred thousand under the Pyrenees, and a 
hundred and fifty thousand beyond the Alps. What 
might not these two hundred and fifty thousand men 
have accomplished if they had not been scattered in 
this useless way ? There was still a chance for safety. 



THE FIRST FORTNIGHT OF FEBRUARY. 15 

if Murat could unite with Prince Eugene to attack 
the Austrian rear. But, to the general amazement, 
Murat had become the ally of the Austrians and 
the English. 

Napoleon, betrayed on every side, wrote in utter 
sadness : " It is my marriage that has wrought my 
ruin ! I don't complain of the Empress, but counted 
too much upon the Austrians ! . . . My father-in- 
law, Metternich, their army corps which served under 
my flag in 1812, have deceived me ! And, finally, 
you see that every tiling, even the winter, has con- 
spired against me. The earth, which was frozen hard 
on the eve of my march to Brienne, turned to mud 
the next day. Marmont remained there, and that 
unfortunate affair at Rothi^re, which I could not 
avoid, makes peace indispensable. My soldiers are 
unwilling to fight any more." The Allies had in- 
vaded Aix-la-Chapelle, Liege, Brussels, all Belgium. 
They had again taken possession of the Marne, cap- 
tured Vitry, and forced Chalons to surrender. As a 
condition of peace they insisted on confining France 
within its old boundaries, the boundaries of 1790. 
" What ! " exclaimed Napoleon ; " ask me to sign such 
a treaty, to trample upon my oath I Un-heard-of re- 
verses have forced me to renounce further conquests, 
but to abandon those of the Republic, to destroy what 
was confided to my keeping, and after so many efforts 
and so many victories, to leave France smaller than I 
found it, never ! It would be treason and cowardice. 
You fear the prolonging of the war, and I fear still 



16 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

more certain dangers which you do not foresee ! . . . 
Consider ! what should I be to the French after putting 
my signature to their humiliation? What answer 
could I make to the Republicans of the Senate when 
they came to ask of me once more the boundary of 
the Rhine?" Nevertheless, the Emperor's counsel- 
lors, deeming longer resistance hopeless, besought 
him to yield. All night long Napoleon lay awake; 
his heart torn by anguish, and he was heard to mutter 
in a dull, broken voice : " Very well ; yes, you shall 
have peace, you want it — but you will see that it is 
a disgraceful peace ! " 

At this time Paris was overwhelmed with terror. 
Joseph wrote to Napoleon, February 7 : " The evacu- 
ation of Chalons has thrown us all into consternation." 
And Marie Louise wrote to Joseph the next day: 
"The Emperor tells me not to worry. You know 
that is impossible." Already people began to think 
of the possibility of the Empress's departure. Feb- 
ruary 7, at eleven in the evening, Joseph wrote to 
Napoleon a long letter from which we make this 
extract : " I am very desirous that the Empress shall 
not depart. We cannot hide from ourselves that the 
alarm and despair of the populace would have sad 
and fatal results. I think, as do all whose opinion 
I value, that we should make every sacrifice before 
proceeding to this extremity. Men devoted to Your 
Majesty's government fear lest the Empress's depart- 
ure would drive the people of the capital to despair, 
and hand over the capital and the Empire to the 



THE FIRST FORTNIGHT OF FEBRUARY. 17 

Bourbons. While I thus give utterance to the terrors 
which I read on every face, Your Majesty may be 
assured that his orders will be executed by me with 
the utmost fidelity as soon as I receive them." 

Napoleon received this letter at Nogent, at the very 
moment when he thought that nothing was left for 
him but to die on the field of battle. His letter in reply 
was published for the first time in full, by the Baron 
Ducasse, in his interesting volume, The Royal Brothers 
of Napoleon L Here are a few passages from this 
letter, dated Nogent, February 8, 1814, 4 a.m., which 
was to have such disastrous consequences before the 
end of the following month : — 

''My Brother: I have received your letter of the 
7th at 11 P.M. It Surprises me much. I have read 
King Louis's letter, which is a mere rhapsody ; that 
man has but little judgment, and he never grasps a 
question properly. I have spoken to you about the 
case of Paris, that you should not call the end in 
question any more ; it concerns more people than me. 
When that happens, I shall be no longer alive ; con- 
sequently, I don't speak for myself. I told you, 
about the Empress and the King of Rome, what the 
circumstances indicate, and you have failed to under- 
stand what I said. You may be sure that if that con- 
tingency arrives, what I foretold to you will infallibly 
happen. I am sure that she too has a presentiment of 
this [an allusion to Marie Louise, who thought that 
the Emperor would get himself killed]. King Louis 
speaks of peace, which is giving his advice at a very 



18 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 

improper time. Moreover, I don't understand your 
letter at all. I thought I had explained everything to 
you ; you never remember anything, and you always 
agree with the first man who talks to you and im- 
presses his views on you. I repeat it then : Paris 
will never be occupied while I am alive ; I have the 
right to be believed by those who hear me." 

Those who reproach General Ducrot for his cele- 
brated proclamation at the siege of Paris should 
reflect on this broken promise. But to return to the 
letter of February 8, 1814 : " Afterwards, if by force of 
circumstances which I cannot now foresee, if I should 
move towards the Loire, I should not leave the Em- 
press and my son far from me, because, in any event, 
it might happen that they would be captured and 
carried to Vienna; and that would happen all the 
sooner if I were no longer alive." 

Referring to Talleyrand, Fouche, and a few others, 
the Emperor went on : "I do not understand how, 
during these intrigues under your very eyes, you 
express such imprudent praise of the proposition of 
traitors unworthy of advising any honorable course. 
Yes, I will be frank with you ; if Talleyrand shares 
this opinion about letting the Empress leave Paris, in 
case the enemy should approach, it is treason. I say 
to you once more, be on your guard against that 
man ; that is what I have done for sixteen years. I 
have ever been kind to him ; but he is certainly the 
greatest enemy of our house, now that fortune has 
for some time abandoned us. Regard the counsel I \ 
give you ; I know more than those people. 



THE FIRST FORTNIGHT OF FEBRUARY. 19 



" If a battle should be lost, and news of my death 
should come, you would hear of it before any one else. 
See that the Empress and the King of Rome leave at 
once for Rambouillet ; give orders to the Senate, the 
Council of State, and all the troops to assemble on 
the Loire. Leave at Paris a prefect and an Imperial 
Commission or some of the mayors. ... But do not let 
the Empress and the King of Rome fall into the ene- 
my's hands. Be sure that from that moment Austria, 
being no longer interested, would carry her to Vienna 
with a generous allowance, and under the pretext of 
seeing the Empress happy, would force the French 
to adopt whatever the Regent of England and Russia 
might suggest. Every party would find itself thereby 
destroyed, while, in the opposite case, the national 
spirit of the great number of those interested in the 
revolt would render every result incalculable. . . . 
It is to the interest of Paris that the Empress and 
the King of Rome do not stay there, because this 
interest cannot be divided from their persons, and 
because, since the foundation of the world, I have 
never known of a monarch's being captured in an 
unfortified town : it would be the first case. 

" In the confusion of a great crisis, one does what 
one has to do, and lets the rest go. Now, if I live, I 
am to be obeyed ; and I have no doubt of this obedi- 
ence. If I die, my son reigning and the Empress 
Regent ought, for the honor of the French, not to 
let themselves be taken, and should retreat to the 
remotest village. Remember what the wife of Philip 



20 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

V. said. Indeed, what would be said of the Empress ? 
That she abandoned the throne of her son and of 
ourselves ; and the Allies would prefer to end every- 
thing by carrying her a prisoner to Vienna. I am 
surprised that you don't see that. It is evident that 
every one's head in Paris is turned by fear." 

This memorable letter ended with this fear, or, 
more truly, this prophecy: "For my part, I had 
rather my son should have his throat cut than that I 
should see him brought up in Vienna as an Austrian 
prince ; and I have a high enough opinion of the 
Empress to be sure that she shares this opinion so 
far as a woman and a mother can." 

Suddenly, just when everything seemed absolutely 
hopeless, after the night of February 8, in which there 
were prepared for the Duke of Vicenza, the French 
plenipotentiary at tlie Congress of Chatillon, de- 
spatches pacific even to humiliation. Napoleon learned 
that Bliicher, with perilous audacity, had entered 
Brie, in Champagne, and was making forced marches 
on Paris. At once the Emperor, as if arousing from 
a disturbed sleep, breathed new hope, and resolved to 
make the Prussians pay well for their boldness by 
suddenly falling on their flank. With the eye of an 
eagle about to seize his prey, he saw the very point 
where he was to attack them. Then passing in a 
moment from the blackest despair to boundless confi- 
dence, his pride reviving and filled with regret for 
the concessions he had prepared himself to make, he 
expected to regain everything by a single stroke. He 



THE FIRST FORTNIGHT OF FEBRUARY. 21 

I saw himself already victorious over the Coalition, 
driving it over the frontiers, pursuing it beyond the 
Rhine, the Elba, the Vistula. He was bending over 
his maps, measuring distances with a compass, when 
the Duke of Bassano entered the room with the 
despatches prepared in the night for the Congress. 
" Oh ! it's you ! " exclaimed Napoleon. " Well, we 
have something very different before us now. I am 
now preparing to beat Bliicher. He is advancing by 
the Montmirail road; I shall leave and beat him 
to-morrow and the next day. If this movement is as 
successful as it ought to be, the state of affairs will 
be entirely changed, and then we shall see." 

Then followed a series of wonders, like the most 
brilliant days of the Italian campaign. The 10th, 
Napoleon beat the Russians at Champaubert; the 
11th, he won the bloody victory of Montmirail over 
the Prussians; the 12th, he pursued the fleeing foe 
and triumphed at Chateau-Thierry; the 14th, he 
beat Bliicher at Vauchamps. It had taken him only 
five days to disorganize the army of Silesia, and to 
capture twenty-eight thousand men of this army of 
sixty thousand. This brilliant result, this series of 
Adctories, made a great impression on Paris, without, 
however, seriously affecting the natural alarm of the 
populace. Yet Joseph, having heard of the victor}^ 
of Champaubert, had written to Napoleon, February 
11: — 

" Sire : I received Your Majesty's letter at the 
moment I was reviewing the National Guard of Paris 



22 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

in the courtyard of the Tuileries. I communicated 
the good news to the officers, who were filled with 
the utmost enthusiasm. Six thousand men of the 
National Guard were present, well equipped and in 
excellent spirits. The King of Rome was at his win- 
dow, and was greeted with cries of 'Long live the 
Emperor ! ' I also told the news to the Councillors 
of State, and all Paris is joyous ; for in fact the 
national honor is not extinct. The Empress, whom 
I saw before she went out, and whom I have just 
seen again, has ordered that cannon be fired, and that 
the news be announced at the theatres this evening." 
The Imperial star still shone bright just before set- 
ting. Never had Napoleon shown himself a more 
skilful tactician. One short, heroic week had been 
enough for him to capture from the Allies five gen- 
erals, sixty-eight cannons, many wagons and stores, 
and more than twenty-eight thousand prisoners. The 
army of Silesia which, on the 9th of February, had 
been only twelve leagues from Paris, was driven 
back by the 14th to forty leagues. Napoleon, de- 
sirous that the capital should still believe in its 
Emperor's genius and good fortune, gave orders that 
the eighteen thousand prisoners he had captured at 
Champaubert, Montmirail, Chateau-Thierry, and Vau- 
champs, should be at once despatched to Paris, and 
that there, to convince the most incredulous of the 
great results obtained, they should march along the 
boulevards and past the Column Vend6me. 



III. 



THE SECOND FORTNIGHT OF FEBRUARY. 

AT the beginning of the second fortnight of 
February Napoleon was far from despairing of 
his chances. Still, the defeat of the army of Silesia 
was only an episode, not a final solution. He now 
had to contend with the Austrian army commanded 
by the Prince of Schwarzenberg, who, after having 
forced the bridges of Nogent, Bray, and Montereau, 
was advancing on Nangis. The Bavarians, under 
General von Wrede, and the Russians, under General 
Wittgenstein, formed the vanguard. The Austrian 
corps of Bianchi was marching on Fontainebleau, 
while Platow's Cossacks were devastating the region 
between the Yonne and the Loire. Napoleon reached 
Meaux February 15, and the next day moved towards 
Guignes. The road was covered with carts, into 
which the neighboring villagers crowded a durable 
supply of provisions for the weary soldiers. The 
artillery advanced in post-wagons. 

The same day the Parisians read in the Moniteur: 
" The exasperation of the inhabitants is at its height. 
The enemy is everywhere committing the most horri- 



24 THE INVASION OF 18 14. 

ble outrages. All the measures are taken for sur- 
rounding them on every side at the first movement in 
retreat. Thousands await only this moment to rise, 
The sacred soil which the enemy have polluted wil 
be their grave. This army of Silesia, composed oi 
the Russian corps of Sachen and Langeron, and 
Kleist's and York's Prussian corps, and consisting of 
eighty thousand men, has been beaten, scattered, an- 
nihilated, in four days." February 18 the Moniteur 
contained this article : " The atrocities committed by 
the Cossacks pass all conception. In their wild 
intoxication they have offered violence to women of 
sixty and girls of twelve. The peasants, in their 
eagerness for vengeance, guided by invalided soldiers, 
and armed with the guns of the enemy picked up on 
the battle-field, have laid hands on all they have met. 
Those armies which boasted that they had entered 
our territory to bring peace, happiness, science, and 
arts, will meet with destruction." 

Napoleon had slept at Nangis February 17. In the 
evening a flag of truce appeared at the outposts. It 
was Count von Paar, who asked for an armistice in 
the name of Prince Schwarzenberg. The next day 
Napoleon wrote to Joseph : — 

"My Brother: Prince Schwarzenberg has just 
shown a sign of life. He has sent a flag of truce 
to ask for a suspension of hostilities. It is not easy 
to be so cowardly. Constantly he had refused in 
the most insulting terms every form of the suspen- 
sion of hostilities, of armistice, even the reception 



THE SECOND FORTNIGHT OF FEBRUARY. 25 



of my flags of truce, after the battles of Dantzic 
and of Dresden, — a horrible thing, almost unheard 
of in history. These wretches fall on their knees 
at the first reverse. Fortunately Prince Schwar- 
zenberg's aide-de-camp was denied entrance. I have 
only received his letter, which I shall answer at 
my convenience. I shall grant no armistice until 
they have evacuated my territory. From what I 
hear, everything has altered with the Allies. The 
Emperor of Russia, who a few days ago broke off 
negotiations because he wished to impose on France 
severer conditions than her old boundaries, now de- 
sires to renew them ; and I hope soon to make a peace 
on the Frankfort basis, which is the least that I can 
do with honor. Before beginning operations I offered 
to sign a treaty accepting the old boundaries, pro- 
vided they would stop at once. This step was taken 
by the Duke of Vicenza on the 8th. They an- 
swered in the negative, alleging that even signing 
the preliminaries would not put a stop to hostilities, 
which could only happen when all the articles of 
peace were signed. This inconceivable reply has 
been punished ; and yesterday, the 17th, they begged 
for an armistice ! You may imagine that, being on 
the eve of a battle in which I was determined to con- 
quer or to perish, and in which, if I were beaten, my 
capital would have been taken, I agreed to anything 
to avoid this terrible risk. I owed to my family and 
to my people this sacrifice of my pride; but when 
they refused it, and the risk of battle was renewed 



26 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

and the chances of ordinary war returned, in which 
my capital was no longer imperilled by a single battle, 
and everything was in my favor, I owe it to the 
interest of the Empire and to my own glory to nego- 
tiate a real peace. If I had signed with the old 
boundaries, I should have renewed the war in two 
years, telling the nation that it was not a peace that 
I had signed, but a capitulation. In the new state 
of affairs I should not be able to say it, since now 
that fortune is once more favorable to me I am master 
of the conditions." 

Was this optimism sincere? Was Napoleon try- 
ing to deceive others or to deceive himself ? How- 
ever this may be, the end of the letter seems to show 
great confidence in the future. " The enemy," he 
said, "is in a very different condition from that in 
which it was when the Frankfort conditions were 
proposed and is convinced that but few of its troops 
will again cover the frontiers. The cavalry is very 
tired and dispirited ; the infantry worn out by march- 
ing and countermarching, and thoroughly discour- 
aged. Hence I hope to be able to make a peace 
such as every reasonable man could desire ; and my 
desires do not go beyond the Frankfort propositions. 
Spread it abroad that the enemy has asked for an 
armistice or a suspension of hostilities ; an absurd 
request, because it would rob me of the advantages 
I had gained by my manoeuvres ; add that this 
shows their discouragement. Don't let it be printed, 
but have it said everj^ where." 



THE SECOND FORTNIGHT OF FEBRUARY. 27 

February 18, the day this letter was written, Napo- 
leon was victorious at the battle of Montereau, one 
of the most brilliant affairs of the campaign. Never 
had he shown greater audacity. Recalling his train- 
ing in the artillery, he aimed the guns himself, 
ordered the firing, and when the men murmured at 
the rash way in which he exposed himself, he ex- 
claimed : " Don't worry, my friends ; the ball that 
is going to kill me isn't yet cast." February 19, 
he wrote to Joseph from the castle of Surville : — 

" My Brother : It took us all day to get through 
that horrible pass of Montereau. I have just had a 
bridge thrown over the Seine, and another over the 
Yonne. . . . The Emperor of Russia and the King of 
Prussia were at Bray. As soon as they heard that I 
had won the bridge of Montereau, they fled in all haste. 
The enemy's army is terrified. The three sovereigns 
have been for some days at Pont, at Madame' s. They 
expected to reach Fontainebleau to-morrow, and to be 
at Paris in a few days. Everything that has befallen 
them seems inconceivable. To-day is cold, and snow 
is falling. I send to the Empress something for the 
Moniteur, but you might have put in the Momteur, 
and small newspapers, under news from the Provinces, 
an article about the haste in which the sovereigns left 
Bray. The Austrians have guaranteed my palace of 
Fontainebleau against the pillage of the Cossacks. . . . 
I could not be more satisfied with the spirit displayed 
by all the towns and the country, and by the feelings 
of every one." 



28 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

In Paris, hope began to revive. Joseph wrote to 
the Emperor, February 20 : '' Your Majesty has every 
reason to believe that his wishes for an honorable 
peace on the Frankfort condition will be granted. I 
do not believe that there is a single Frenchman with 
different opinions " ; and February 21 : " Every one 
agrees that Your Majesty should not have accorded 
a suspension of hostilities. Every one desires peace 
with the natural boundaries. No one now wants 
the former frontiers." 

February 20, Napoleon has advanced up the Seine, 
on the left bank, by the road from Montereau to 
Nogent. That evening he halted in this last town, 
which had suffered cruelly, and was but a mass of 
burnt and battered walls. In this disaster the Sisters 
of Saint Vincent de Paul had, as ever, performed 
miracles of devotion and charity. The Emperor 
thanked them in the name of the country. Mean- 
while the retreat of the enemy after the reverse at 
Montereau seemed to be turning into a rout. A sort 
of panic threw disorder into their ranks. The roads 
through the Vosges were lined with carts, drivers, 
wounded, and fugitives, hurrying to the Rhine. A 
hundred thousand men were fleeing before Napoleon, 
who had but forty thousand for their pursuit. 

It was then — February 21, 1814 — that he wrote 
from Nogent to his father-in-law, the Emperor of 
Austria, one of the most curious letters that ever 
came from his pen. It began thus ; — 



THE SECOND FORTNIGHT OF FEBRUARY. 29 

"My Brother and very dear Father-in-law: 
I did my best to avoid the battle which has just taken 
place. Fortune has favored me, and I have destroyed 
the Russian and Prussian army commanded by Gen- 
eral Bliicher, and later, the Prussian army commanded 
by General Kleist. In this state of affairs, whatever 
opinions may exist at your headquarters, my army 
outnumbers in infantry, cavalry, and artillery Your 
Majesty's army. And if this assurance should be 
necessary to your decision, I shall have no difficulty 
in proving this to any man of sound judgment, such 
as Prince Schwarzenberg, Count Bubna, or Prince 
Metternich. I deem it my duty to write to Your 
Majesty, because this contest between a French army 
and one mainly Austrian seems to me contrary to your 
interests as well as to my own. If fortune betrays 
my hopes, Your Majesty's situation will be only the 
more embarrassing. If I defeat your ami}-, how will 
it withdraw from France with the population already 
exasperated to the highest pitch by the crimes of all 
sorts of wdiich the Cossacks and the Russians have 
been guilty? In this state of affairs, I propose to 
Your Majesty to sign a peace without delay, on the 
bases you proposed at Frankfort, which I and the 
French nation have adopted as our ultimatum. I say 
more : these bases can alone re-establish the European 
equilibrium. If harder conditions had been imposed 
on France, peace would have been of short duration. 
. ". . There is no Frenchman who would not have 
preferred death to the acceptance of conditions which 



30 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

could make us slaves of England, and strike out 
France from the list of powers. England may well 
desire to destroy Antwerp, and to put an obstacle in 
the way of the re-establishment of the French navy; 
but you, Sire, what is your interest in the annihilation 
of the French navy? Your Majesty becomes a mari- 
time power by the conditions you set at Frankfort. 
Do you want your flag outraged and insulted by 
England as it constantly has been? What interest 
can Your Majesty have in putting Belgium under the 
yoke of a Protestant prince, whose son will ascend 
the English throne? All these hopes and plans lie 
beyond the power of the Coalition. If the battle 
against Your Majesty's army should be lost, I have 
the means for fighting two more before it reaches 
Paris; and even if Paris were taken, the rest of 
France would never endure the yoke proposed in this 
treaty, which seems to be inspired by the English 
policy. The convulsion of the nation would aug- 
ment its energy and its forces fourfold. I shall never 
cede Antwerp and Belgium. ... If Your Majesty 
persists in abandoning his proper interests for the 
policy of England or the resentment of Russia, and 
will only lay down arms on the frightful conditions 
proposed at the Congress, the genius of France and 
Providence will be on our side. The Emperor Alex- 
ander's thirst for vengeance has no good ground. I 
offered him peace before entering Moscow; at Mos- 
cow, I did my best to extinguish the fire started by 
his orders. Besides, in Paris two hundred thou- 



THE SECOND FORTNIGHT OF FEBRUARY. ^1 

sand men are under arms ; they have learned by 
the actions of the Russians, the emptiness of their 
promises; they know what fate they wouki have to 
expect. I ask Your Majesty to avoid the risks of 
battle. I ask peace, a prompt peace, based on 
the proclamation which Prince Schwarzenberg pub- 
lished as the Declaration of the Allied Powers, in- 
serted in the Frankfort Journal^ the bases that I have 
accepted, and accept again, although the position of 
the Allies is very different from what it was then, 
and now any impartial man will agree that the 
chances are on my side." 

This really eloquent letter, breathing a combina- 
tion of pain and pride, closes with a pathetic appeal 
to the heart of the father of Marie Louise, the grand- 
father of the King of Rome. The Emperor does not 
mention his wife or his son by name; yet they 
appear as if they were carrying an olive branch. It 
was not family feeling alone that was invoked. 
Napoleon reminded the ruler of Austria that he was 
head of the house of Lorraine, that his blood was 
French blood. This is the end of the letter, which 
deeply moved Emperor Francis and nearly saved 
France : " May I be allowed to say to Your Majesty 
that in spite of all you have done against me since 
the invasion of my territory, and the faint memory 
you preserve of the ties that unite us, and of the rela- 
tions which our states are called upon to maintain 
for their common interest, my feelings are unchanged, 
and I cannot observe with indifference that if you 



32 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

refuse peace, this refusal will bring misery to your life 
and many evils to all, while a single word of yours can 
put an end to everything, bring about a reconciliation, 
and restore to the world, and especially to Europe, 
lasting tranquillity. If I could have been cowardly 
enough to accept the conditions of the English and 
Russian ministers, you ought to have dissuaded me, 
because you knew that nothing that disgraces thirty 
millions of men can be durable. Your Majesty can 
put an end to this war by a single word, can assure 
the happiness of his own people and of Europe, 
secure himself against the fickleness of fortune, and 
terminate the evils of a nation, the prey not of 
ordinary sufferings, but of the crimes of the Tartars 
of the desert, who scarcely deserve to be called men. 
I take it for granted that Your Majesty has not to ask 
me why I write to him. I cannot address the Englisli, 
whose policy it is to destroy my navy, or to the 
Emperor Alexander, since passion and revenge in- 
spire all his feelings. Hence, I can write to Your 
Majesty alone, my recent ally, who, by the strength 
of his army and the extent of his empire, is regarded 
as the leading force of the Coalition ; in short, to 
Your Majesty, who, whatever his feelings at the 
moment, has French blood flowing in his veins." 

Napoleon was untiring. His pen was as active as 
his sword. No detail escaped his vigilance. He 
was everywhere, seeing to everything at once. The 
very day he wrote to the Emperor of Austria, he 
sent this letter to Joseph : — 



TBE SECOND FORTNIGHT OF FEBRUARY. 33 

"My Brother: You ought to have no anxiety 
about Orleans and Montargis. The movement I am 
making will attract the enemy very speedily, and 
their corps will be glad to fall back promptly. I 
think it would be well for the Regent to write to the 
city of Orleans in some such way as this : ' I learn 
that the city of Orleans is threatened by fifteen 
hundred scouts of the enemy's army. What! the 
city of Orleans, Avith forty thousand inhabitants, is 
afraid of fifteen hundred cavalry ! Where is the 
French energy ? Form your National Guard, organ- 
ize a company of artillery, take from your stables the 
necessary horses. I give orders to the Minister of War 
to supply you with twelve cannon and five howitzers 
for the defence of your cit}'' and property. The 
enemy who threatens us is implacable ; he ravages 
our countryside and sacks our cities ; he has not 
kept a single one of his promises. To arms, then, 
inhabitants of Orleans, and confirm by your actions 
the opinion I have formed of you and of the French 
nation ! ' A number of such letters, signed by the 
Empress, would have more effect than signed by me. 
... I think that the Empress might write to Lille, 
Valenciennes, Cambrai, and other large towns near 
the northern frontier in similar terms, modifying the 
language according to the zeal these towns have shown 
in recent events. It would be well for the Empress 
to write them all with her own hand. I think, too, 
that a proclamation to Belgium, from the Empress as 
Regent, would be of use. This proclamation might be 



34 THE INVASION OF ISU. 

put into the form of a letter to the mayor of Brussels, 
the mayor of Ghent, of Bruges, of Mons, etc. The 
Empress might make mention of the successes I have 
had, of the desire of the English to detach them from 
France and to bring them under the yoke of a prince 
who has always been hostile to their country and their 
religion ; soon the enemy will be convinced that no 
peace will be signed in which the Allies do not 
guarantee France the integrity of its natural boun- 
daries. These letters might be expressed differently 
to make them seem like different proclamations." 

Napoleon made superhuman exertions to arouse 
the patriotism of the French, but he had to deal with 
a country so exhausted and discouraged that his 
heroism and that of the army were powerless. Joseph 
wrote to his brother February 22 : " The feeling at 
Toulouse and Bordeaux is very bad, and a Bourbon 
would be received if he should present himself. . . . 
I suppose that we are on the eve of a battle. What- 
ever may be the result, the present state of things 
cannot last. The administration is everywhere fall- 
ing into decay, money is lacking, and the system of 
making requisitions is finally deadening all zeal and 
isolating the government. However harsh these facts 
are, since Your Majesty cannot hear them from the 
lips of his Ministers, I do not hesitate to assume the 
painful task of uttering them." 

As to the National Guard of Paris, it would have 
been a great mistake to place any dependence upon 
it. King Joseph in the same letter spoke about it in 



THE SECOND FORTNIGHT OF FEBRUARY. 35 

this way : " The National Guard, in its present con- 
dition, is a security against anarchy ; it means well ; 
it has been aroused by hearing of the miracles Your 
Majesty has wrought in a few days ; it is anxious for 
a peace that shall bring you back to your capital, and 
is inclined to love as well as to admiration. This 
feeling is shared by the whole city, but to say more. 
Sire, would be false and would mislead Your Majesty. 
This city of Paris, so hostile to the government a 
month ago, so touched by Your Majesty's confidence 
as shown by your entrusting to it your wife and son, 
so encouraged and amazed by Your Majesty's successes, 
nevertheless is not in a state from which it is possible 
to expect fidelity or obedience. It has admired your 
genius ; but it can only be moved to enthusiasm by 
the hope of a speedy peace, and is not at all dis- 
posed to undertake any serious defence against a 
single army corps, or to send outside of the city any 
detachments of the National Guard. That, Sire, is 
the exact truth. Your Majesty must not count on 
any effort beyond what may be expected from a pop- 
ulace thus disposed." 

So far from losing heart. Napoleon became more 
confident every day. He hoped that the general 
uprising of the frontier provinces, the sorties of the 
garrisons, Augereau's attack on the rear of the Aus- 
trian army, would turn the Allies' retreat beyond the 
Rhine into a hopeless rout. In his delight at seeing 
them retreat before him in the direction of Troyes, 
he felt all his pride return when in the morning of 



86 THE INVASION OF 18 14. 

February 23, within the four bare walls of the hovel 
of a wheelwright of the village of Chatre, where he 
had passed the night, he received the visit of Prince 
Wentzel Lichtenstein, an aide-de-camp of Prince 
Schwarzenberg, who brought him propositions for an 
armistice. 

The language of the Austrian envoy was not merely 
peaceful ; it expressed a deference and an admiration 
which highly flattered the Emperor. Then he said to 
the aide-de-camp of Prince Schwarzenberg : " So the 
favorite plan of England has prevailed in the counsels 
of the Coalition. Their war has become a personal 
one. It was decidedly against my dynasty that it 
was aimed." Prince Lichtenstein having protested 
against this supposition. Napoleon spoke to him of 
the connivance of the Allies with the intrigues of the 
Duke of Angouleme, of the Duke of Berry, of Count 
d'Artois, and showed some surprise at seeing the 
Emperor of Austria working to dethrone his own 
daughter. At this the Prince exclaimed : " Such an 
intention would be unnatural. My august sovereign, 
the Emperor, would never lend himself to it. As to 
the presence of the Bourbons, it is to be regarded as 
a means of war, to secure a peace which my mission 
proves is desired." 

This answer filled Napoleon with joy, and he prom- 
ised that an armistice should be arranged. He fan- 
cied that he had returned to the grand days of his 
power and glory. After Prince Lichtenstein had gone 
he was overheard exclaiming in an outburst of pride : 



THE SECOND FORTNIGHT OF FEBRUARY. 37 

"The Allies will repent their insolence. They will 
see that I am nearer their capitals than they are to 
mine. Yes, we are nearer Munich than they are to 
Paris." The next day, February 24, he entered 
Troyes, which the enemy had just evacuated ; a flag 
of truce brought him word that Lusigny, near Van- 
doeuvres, had been chosen for the negotiation of the 
armistice. In his talk with the messenger he said 
loudly : "I am nearer Vienna than you are to Paris." 

The Moniteur gave an account of the Emperor's 
entrance into the capital .of Champagne : " It is im- 
possible to form an idea of the annoyances to which 
the inhabitants have been exposed during the seven- 
teen days that the enemy have occupied the city. 
It would also be hard to describe the enthusiasm and 
eagerness they displayed over the arrival of the Em- 
peror. A mother who sees her children saved from 
death, slaves who see their chains broken after the 
crudest captivity, know no keener joy than that shown 
by the people af Troyes. Their conduct has been 
honorable and praiseworthy. The theatre was open 
every evening, but not a man, or a woman, of even 
the lower classes, was willing to be present. The 
whole populace is eager to march." 

Intoxicated by his success, Napoleon wrote to 
Joseph this letter overflowing with pride : — 

"My Brother: I am at Troyes. The enemy's 
army pursues me with flags of truce, asking for a sus- 
pension of hostilities. ... I have had many cavalry 
skirmishes. I have captured two thousand prisoners 



38 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

and cannon. I am writing to the Empress to have 
thirty guns fired, both for these minor affairs and for 
the deliverance of the capital of Champagne. . . . 
If I had had twenty skiffs to cross the Seine when I 
wanted, there would have been no Austrian army 
left. However, there is great terror in the enemy's 
ranks. A few days ago they thought I had no 
army ; now there is no limit to what they imagine : 
three or four hundred thousand men are not enough. 
Formerly they thought I had no reserves ; now they 
say I have massed all my veterans and face them 
only with picked troops. That is what fear does. It 
is important that the Paris newspapers should con- 
firm this alarm. The Minister of the Interior is a 
poltroon ; he has a foolish idea of men. Neither he 
nor the Minister of Police has any more idea of 
France than I have of China. . . . The enemy has 
committed so many atrocities that France will be 
indignant. Here, on the spot, the most moderate 
cannot speak of them calmly. If the French were 
as despicable as the Ministry of the Interior seems to 
think, I should myself blush to be a Frenchman." 

General de Segur, the historian of this drama of 
the invasion, in which he took a part, says that at 
this moment fortune hung on a single thread ; a little 
more and the Coalition would have fallen by its own 
weight, and France would have been saved. Na- 
poleon's frequent blows upon the Marne, his reappear- 
ance on the banks of the Seine, the massing of an 
army at Lyons, seemed to make the enemy lose their 



THE SECOND FORTNIGHT OF FEBRUARY. 39 

head. General de S^gur adds: " Pozzo di Borgo, 
the bitterest of Napoleon's personal enemies, the 
Corsican who turned Russian, whose hate had most 
encouraged the Allies to push on the war to the end, 
has often affirmed this to us. How often has he 
described to us all the invective which succeeded 
the high consideration he had acquired by the suc- 
cess of his advice ! With the exception of the Prus- 
sians, the enemy's staffs, in their alarm at finding 
themselves so far in France, imagined that they were 
caught in a snare. This minister had become the 
object of universal reprobation. Emperor Alexander 
told him that they had done enough ; that a victori- 
ous march from Moscow to the banks of the Seine 
was sufficient; that they should not expose their 
advantages to a second day of Marengo; that evi- 
dently Napoleon was growing stronger with the aid 
of France. Were they not finding in him once more 
the general of the Army of Italy?" The alarm- 
ists in the allied camp said that their retreat would 
be a repetition of the retreat from Russia, and all 
that Napoleon heard about their panic filled him 
with one of the greatest joys he had ever known. 

In Paris, Sunday, February 27, the flags which 
had recently been captured by the Emperor, were 
formally presented to the Empress Regent. They 
were borne by two officers of the Imperial Guard, 
four officers of troops of the line, and four officers of 
the National Guard, who started from the Ministry 
of War and proceeded with the Ministers to the 



40 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 






Tuileries, with a band in front and an escort follow- 
ing. The Minister of War said to Marie Louise; 
" Madame : When the Saracens were defeated by) 
Charles Martel in the plains of Tours and Poitiers,; 
the capital was decked Avith the spoils of but a single 
nation. To-day, when dangers no less serious than 
those then threatening France have produced more 
important and more difficult successes, your august 
spouse presents to you these banners captured from 
the three great powers of Europe. Since a blind 
hate has stirred up against us so many nations, even 
those to whom France had restored their indepen- 
dence, for which she has made great sacrifices, may 
it not be said that these flags are captured from all 
Europe ? . . . These pledges of French valor are for 
us the tokens of new and still greater successes, if 
the enemy's obstinacy prolongs the war. This noble 
hope fills the heart of every Frenchman. You share 
it, Madame, you who, ever trusting in your august 
husband's genius, in the love and energy of the nation, 
have continued to show, in all the circumstances of 
this war, a firmness of soul and virtues worthy of the 
admiration of Europe and of posterity." 

Marie Louise replied: "Duke of Feltre, Minister 
of War : It is with keen emotion that I see these 
trophies which you present to me in obedience to 
the orders of the Emperor, my august spouse. To 
my eyes they are the pledges of the safety of the 
country. At the sight of them may all the French 
rise in arms I May they throng about their monarch 



THE JSECOiYU FORTJSIGHT OF FEBRUARY. 41 

and their father ! Their courage, led by his genius, 
will soon have accomplished the deliverance of our 
territory." 

At the end of the audience, the fourteen flags — 
one Austrian, four Prussian, and nine Russian — were 
carried with great pomp to the Invalides. Cavalry 
rode at the head and at the end of the procession. 

At this moment Marie Louise felt hope revive. 
She could not imagine that she would be abandoned 
by her father, and fancied that her anxieties would 
soon be over. The evening before, she had written 
to Emperor Francis a really touching letter from 
which she expected the best results. In it she said : 
"It is not good policy to force a disgraceful peace upon 
us, for it cannot last. Imagine, dear father, in what 
a state I am. For me it would be a blow I could not 
survive. Hence I beseech you, dear father, to re- 
member me and my son. You know how much I 
love you, and how much I flatter myself that I enjoy 
your fatherly affection." The Empress went on to 
sa^ that the condition of affairs and her husband's 
absence were affecting her health. " It depends on 
you," she closed, "to put an end to my anxiety. 
You will do this, won't you ? " 

Marie Louise saw about her less gloomy faces than 
a few days before. The courtiers, who had kept aloof, 
began to r^eappear, and to speak with enthusiasm of 
the Emperor's genius. They said that the dynasty 
was unattackable, and that it would have been a dis- 
grace to accept the boundaries of 1792 ; that they were 



42 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

going to have the natural boundaries, that the request 
for armistice was a sign of an early peace, which 
would be as honorable for France as for its glorious 
ruler. The Empress gladly listened to these flatter- 
ing words, and at the end of February there prevailed 
at the Tuileries a feeling of tranquillity which was, 
alas ! to be of but brief duration. 

Bliicher, that obstinate and implacable enemy, was 
about to change the face of things. While the bulk 
of the French army was massed about Troyes, think- 
ing of the armistice and the peace, the Prussian 
troops were rapidly advancing on both banks of the 
Marne in the direction of Paris. Napoleon received 
word of this in the night of February 26. The morn- 
ing of the 27th he suddenly started from Troyes to 
pursue the Prussian army through Arcis-sur-Aube 
and Sezanne. The evening of that day he t6ok up 
his quarters at Herbisse, in the house of a simple 
country priest. The officers spent the night on 
chairs, tables, or straw. In spite of the serious con- 
dition of things they preserved all their jollity, in the 
hope that this new march on the flank of the Prussian 
army would be as fruitful as the other. 

The situation, however, at once complicated itself 
most seriously. The Austrians had suddenly resumed 
the offensive at the very moment when Napoleon left 
Troyes. It was expected that they would be pur- 
sued to the Rhine, and they were rallying between 
Langres and Bar. Marshal Augereau could no longer 
make the diversion on the Sa6ne. Bliicher's army. 



THE SECOND FORTNIGHT OF FEBRUARY. 43 

threatening Paris, was already at the gates of Meaux, 
and in front of it there were only the insufficient 
forces of Marmont and Mortier. Nevertheless, the 
Emperor was not disturbed; at first he had hopes of 
ridding himself of Bldcher after he had made a junc- 
tion with the two marshals, then to return on the 
Seine soon enough to stop the Austrians and save 
Troyes. His troops, exhausted by fatigue, but yet 
full of ardor, advanced by forced marches on Ferte- 
sous-Jouarre. It was the end of February. Events 
were crowding on one another ; every one felt that the 
end of the drama was not far off. 



IV. 



THE FIRST FORTNIGHT OF MARCH. 

THE first fortnight of March was for Napoleon a 
period of anguish even more terrible than the 
previous weeks. After profiting so long by what he 
called his star, he found himself face to face with an 
evil fate which paralyzed every effort of his genius. 
An absolutely unexpected accident — the capitula- 
tion of Soissons — suddenly overthrew his profound- 
est combinations and swept all his pieces from the 
board. Nevertheless, hoping against hope, he contin- 
ued the struggle, facing misfortune with an energy 
hardly equalled in history. His pride, far from dimin- 
ishing, only became greater. The darker fortune 
became, the more he yearned to control it. He tried 
to inspire, not pity, but fear. He wrote to his minis- 
ters and spoke to his generals in the old imperious 
tone which had marked the days of his greatest 
power. In his presence no one dared to utter a 
murmur, for his personal ascendancy was still irresisti- 
ble ; but behind his back there was much denuncia- 
tion of his boundless ambition, the main cause of the 
woes of France. The feeling of the army continued 
44 



THE FIliST FORTNIGHT OF MARCH. 45 

admirable, but in Paris the discouragement was pro- 
found. There anything seemed preferable to war, 
and even in official circles nothing was demanded but 
an immediate cessation of hostilities, even with the 
loss of the natural frontiers, the glorious conquest of 
the Republic. The great nation, always accustomed 
to attacking, could not reconcile itself to the idea of 
defence. It was timidly whispered that in spite of 
all the optimistic announcements and the many bul- 
letins of victories, the enemy was only a few leagues 
from the capital, and the great majority of Parisians 
felt none of the ardor and fanaticism of the defenders 
of Saragossa or of those who burned Moscow. Marie 
Louise felt isolated, shorn of support, deprived of 
counsellors, and more like a victim than a sovereign. 
King Joseph appeared more terrified than ever; no 
one in the Empress's court spoke a word of encour- 
agement. The faint gleam of hope which for a 
moment lit up the situation vanished at once. The 
courtiers, who had worn a cheerful face for two or 
three days, were again plunged in gloom, and every 
one at the Tuileries was oppressed by a presentiment 
of the impending catastrophe. 

Nevertheless, at the beginning of March Napoleon 
was still full of hope. In the night of the 2d his 
troops, full of ardor, effected the crossing of the 
Marne. Bliicher's soldiers, with the Aisne before 
them, the Marne in their rear, threatened on the 
left by the troops of the Duke of Treviso and the 
Duke of Ragusa, on the right by Napoleon's army, 



46 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 

imagined that all was lost, but at the very moment 
when they were about to be driven back on Soissons 
and doubtless compelled to lay down their arms 
under the walls of this city, an unexpected piece of 
good fortune saved them. Soissons, which, although 
occupied by a garrison of but one thousand men, 
could have held out twenty-four hours longer and so 
have given Napoleon time to arrive, was surrendered 
March 3 by its commander. General Moreau, who 
was in no Avay related to the other great general of 
the same name. Biilow and Wintzengerode, coming, 
one from Belgium, the other from Luxembourg, joined 
Bliicher, raising his army from fifty thousand to a 
hundred and ten thousand men, and Soissons, instead 
of being his ruin, was his salvation. 

Napoleon was at Fismes, March 4, when he heard 
the fatal news. He exclaimed in anguish: "I had 
that madman of a Bliicher in the arms of the Aisne, 
and now they have surrendered Soissons and given 
him the bridge without blowing it up ! It's that 
wretched Moreau who has ruined us I That name 
is fatal to France." Hubert, one of the Emperor's 
valets, said : " From that day my master's face con- 
tinually wore a look of melancholy, even of unhappi- 
ness. I looked in vain for that kind and amiable 
smile which formerly lent his often terrible expres- 
sion a touching grace, which one remembered as if it 
were a kindness or a most pleasing reward. From 
that time his smile was forced and painful ; his voice, 
his every action, was marked with sadness." 



THE FIRST FORTNIGHT OF MARCH. 47 

The day that the Emperor learned of the surrender 
of Soissons, which upset all his plans, Marie Louise 
was presiding at the Tuileries over an extraordinary 
council charged with the examination of the condi- 
tions of peace proposed by the Allies at the Congress 
of Chatillon. These conditions comprised the resto- 
ration of the old boundaries to France, and, with one 
exception, all the members of the council agreed to, 
accept them. '' Rigorous as the treaty was," says the 
Duke of Rovigo, " it preserved in France the estab= 
lished government, and maintained the existence of 
the Emperor and his family. England recognized the 
new dynasty, — an advantage which none of the pre- 
vious negotiations had accorded to Napoleon. There 
was no question of the Bourbons, who appeared to 
have been abandoned. This was a great thing for 
the Emperor, who thereby found himself better treated 
than even France." 

What the Ministers and high dignitaries most 
desired w^as to preserve their own places ; hence all 
agreed in condemning a resistance Avhich seemed 
hopeless. The very day when this council was held 
with the Empress presiding, Joseph wrote to his 
brother : " It is generally agreed that it is better to 
accept the boundaries as they were in 1792, than to 
expose the capital. The occupation of the capital, it 
is thought, would be the end of the existing order, 
and the beginning of great misfortunes. Allied 
Europe washes to reduce France to what it was in 
1792 ; this may well be the basis of a treaty com- 



48 THE INVASION OF 18 14. 

manded by circumstances, but let the territoiy be 
evacuated at once. In short, a speedy peace, of any 
sort, is indispensable. It will be a two or three years' 
truce, but, good or bad, we must have peace. . . . 
The natural boundaries would be a real beneht for 
France and for Europe ; they would give hope of a 
long peace, but no one is held by an impossibility. 
... So make a truce in petto, since the injustice of 
the enemy does not allow a just peace, and the state 
of feeling and of affairs permits no hope that France 
will make efforts proportionate to the object to be 
aimed at. Your letter to the Emperor of Austria is 
thought to be noble and reasonable. You will stay 
in France ; France will remain what she was when it 
astounded Europe ; and you who saved it once will 
save it again, by signing this peace, and save yourself 
as well. Be recognized by England ; deliver France 
from the Cossacks and the Prussians, and some day 
France will make up to you in blessings what super- 
ficial people will imagine that you have lost in glory." 
Napoleon, above all things a warrior, had a horror 
of a peace which seemed to him disgraceful. Even 
after the surrender of Soissons, he hoped to possess 
the natural frontiers of France. The enormous 
numerical superiority of Bliicher's forces did not 
prevent his pursuing the Prussians and the Rus- 
sians beyond the Aisne, and March 7 he fought the 
bloody battle of Craonne. Here the French had to 
take by assault a lofty plateau, defended by fifty 
thousand men and a full supply of artillery, while 



THE FIRST FORTNIGHT OF MARCH. 49 

the attacking force consisted of but thirty thousand, 
with insufficient artillery. The enemy withdrew in 
good order towards Laon and prepared for a second 
battle. Napoleon followed them. To the hundred 
thousand experienced troops of his adversary he 
could oppose only thirty thousand, young, sick, and 
ill-equipped. These boys, these creatures of a day, 
as General de S^gur called them, who had joined one 
evening to be sacrificed on the morrow, could scarcely 
be styled soldiers. One day General Drouot, seeing 
them so young, so frail, half-clad, ill-trained, fighting 
one against four, said emphatically, that it was "a 
repetition of the slaughter of the innocents." 

Nevertheless, Napoleon continued the struggle 
with a sort of fury. At Laon he fought a second 
and terrible battle, which continued for two days, 
the 9th and 10th of March, but in spite of his heroic 
exertions, he was compelled to retreat on Soissons, 
which he entered on the 12th in profound dejection. 

Joseph had written to him, March 9 : " After the 
new victory you have gained [that of Craonne] you 
can sign with glory peace with the former boun- 
daries. This peace will restore France to itself after 
the long conflict which begun in 1792, and will con- 
tain nothing to its dishonor, since it will have lost 
none of its old territory, and will have made the 
interior changes it desired. As for you. Sire, so often 
victorious, I am convinced that you have within you 
all that is necessary to make the French forget, or 
rather to remember, what was best in the govern- 



50 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

ment of Louis XII., Henri IV., and Louis XIV., if 
you make a firm peace with Europe, and follow 
the natural instincts of your kind character, renounc- 
ing what is factitious and consenting to live as a 
great king after flourishing as a great man. When 
you have saved France from anarchy and from the 
coalition of all Europe, you will become the father 
of your people, and will be adored as much as Louis 
XII., after having been more adored than Henri IV. 
and Louis XIV.; and to secure so many kinds of 
glory, you have only to wish your own happiness and 
that of France." 

Joseph's wise and fraternal counsel appeared to 
Napoleon like satirical reprimand. Having always 
chosen to inspire fear rather than love, he hated to 
think that after having been the greatest of conquer- 
ors, he could henceforth be^ only a kindly monarch, 
a simple father of his people. He distrusted his 
brother, as he did every one, and regarded him as a 
petty creature void of courage, — indeed, he doubted 
the disinterestedness of his advice. There had been 
imprudent talk in the suite of the former King of 
Spain. Men who had never seen a battle-field said 
of the Emperor : " He is a madman ; he will have us 
all killed." It was even insinuated that a new 
regency would have to be formed, with Joseph at the 
head, because he was a pacific and moderate Prince 
with whom Euro23e would treat more willingly than 
with Napoleon. The echo of many of their words 
reached Napoleon's ears, and the wounded but always 



THE FIRST FORTNIGHT OF MARCH 51 

terrible lion rose in his might. This Jupiter Tonans 
was, perhaps, haughtier even than at the time when 
his slightest frown sent a shudder through the Olym- 
pus of emperors and kings. 

He would not even admit the idea that he might 
have need of his wife to escape from the dangers 
against which he was struggling. He wrote to 
Joseph from Soissons, March 12, 1814: "I am 
sorry to see that you have been talking to my 
wife about the Bourbons and the opposition the 
Emperor of Austria might make to them. I beg 
of you to avoid these conversations. I do not wish 
to be protected by my wife ; this idea would spoil 
her, and divide us. What is the use of such talk ? 
Let her lead her own life ; speak to her only about 
what she must know in order to affix her signature ; 
and above all, avoid everything that could make her 
think I desire to be protected by her or her father. 
Not once for four years has the word Bourbon or 
Austria crossed my lips. Besides, all that can only 
disturb her and injure her excellent character. 

" You always write as if peace depended on me ; 
but I sent you all the documents. If the Parisians 
want to see the Cossacks, they will repent it; but, 
once more, must the truth out ? I have never sought 
the applause of the Parisians. I am not a performer 
in an opera. Besides, you would need to be much 
more practical than you are to understand the feeling 
of that city, which has nothing in common with the 
passions of the three or four thousand people who 



52 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

make so mucli noise. It is perfectly simple, and 
much quicker, to say that it is impossible to make a 
levy of men than to try to make one. The Emperor 
of Austria is powerless, because he is weak, and is 
led by Metternich, who is in the pay of England : 
that's the whole secret." 

The evening before, Joseph had written a letter 
which added to the Emperor's irritation. It con- 
tained the following passages: "The upshot of all 
that has been said to me by the Ministers, the officers 
of the National Guard, of all that I know of the per- 
sons attached to the existing order, is that peace is 
forced upon us by the nature of things. There is 
not a man who would not loudly crave it, were it 
not for fear of displeasing you ; and in fact, it is only 
your enemies who would dissuade you from accepting 
peace with the former frontiers. . . . Disturbing 
rumors are beginning to make their way through the 
capital, which tend to cast discredit on Your Majesty. 
For example, they speak of the recall of the Duke of 
Conegliano, who is much loved. . . . March is pass- 
ing, and the fields are not sown. But it is unneces- 
sary to go into details. Your Majesty must feel that 
there is no remedy but peace, and a speedy peace. 
Every day lost does us personally much harm ; pri- 
vate misery is very great, and there is no doubt that 
whenever the conviction is established that Your 
Majesty prefers the continuance of the war to a 
peace (however disgraceful), weariness will turn 
men's minds in the contrary direction. If Toulouse 



THE FIRST FORTNIGHT OF MARCH. 53 

and Bordeaux protect a Bourbon, you will have civil 
war, and the vast population of Paris will favor the 
one who will secure the earlier peace." 

Napoleon answered this letter as follows ; " Soissons, 
March 12, 1814 : Everywhere I hear the complaints 
of the people against their mayors and the middle 
classes who prevent their defending themselves : I 
see the same thing in Paris. The people have 
energy and honor. I am very much afraid that 
there are certain leaders who do not wish to fight 
and who will be much disturbed, after all is over, by 
what will have happened to them." 

The untiring soldier would not confess himself 
beaten by fate. His inconceivable audacity had so 
impressed Bliicher that the obstinate Prussian kept 
his troops motionless for a week. Napoleon took 
advantage of this respite to reorganize his feeble 
army, to put garrisons in Compigne in a condition to 
defend themselves, and to retake Rheims, after a battle 
in which there fell General de Saint Priest, a French 
Emigre who had a position in the Russian army. 
March 14, the Emperor wrote to Joseph : — 

" My Brother : Yesterday I reached Rheims, 
which General de Saint Priest had occupied with three 
Russian divisions and a new Prussian division which 
had come from the blockade of Stettin. I beat them, 
recapturing the city, twenty cannon, and many stores. 
General de Saint Priest was mortally wounded ; his 
leg was amputated at the thigh. What is strange is, 
that Saint Priest was wounded by the same artillery- 



54 THE INVASION OF 18 14. 

man that killed General Moreau. One must say, 

Providence ! O Providence ! " ■ 
Napoleon at Rlieims, in the shadow of the, great 

cathedral in which the kings of France were formerly 
crowned, still proudly enjoyed his position as sover- 
eign. He could not listen to a word of criticism or 
of advice, and, March 14, he wrote to Joseph this 
letter which shows all the haughtiness of his char- 
acter : — 

" My Brother : I am sorry you have told the 
Duke of Conegliano what I wrote to you. I don't 
like this gossiping. If it suited my views to order 
the Duke of Conegliano elsewhere, the chatter of 
Paris would not move me. The National Guard 
of Paris forms part of the French people, and so long 
as I live I shall be master everywhere in France. 
Your character and mine are very different. You 
like to coax people and to follow their ideas, while 

1 require to be pleased and to have people obey mine. 
To-day, as at Austerlitz, I am master. Don't let any- 
one wheedle the National Guard, or let Regnaud or 
any one else become their tribune. I suppose, how- 
ever, that they perceive the difference between the 
time of La Fayette, when the people were sovereign, 
and now, when I am. I have prepared a decree to 
raise twelve battalions by a general levy. The exe- 
cution of this measure is not to be impeded in any 
way whatsoever. If the people perceive that instead 
of doing what is necessary, there is any effort to 
please them, it will be natural for them to think 



THE FIRST FORTNIGHT IN MARCH. 55 

themselves sovereign and to form a poor idea of those 
who ofovern them." 

The same day Napoleon wrote to the Duke of 
Rovigo, Minister of Police, this still more imperious 
letter : " You tell me nothing of what is going on 
in Paris. They are talking about an address, the 
Regency, and a thousand intrigues as silly as they 
are absurd, which can only be devised by a simpleton 
like Miot. These people seem not to know that I 
cut the gordian knot like Alexander. They must 
know that I am to-day the same man I was at Wag- 
ram and Austerlitz, that I desire no intrigue in the 
country, that there is no authority there but mine, and 
that in case of confusion the Regent alone possesses 
my confidence. King Joseph is weak ; he busies 
himself with intrigues which might be fatal to the 
state, and certainly to himself and to his counsel, if 
he does not speedily return to the right path. I am 
displeased to learn all this from another source than 
yourself. Understand that if there had been made an 
address contrary to the constituted authorit}^ I should 
have had the King, my Ministers, and all who signed 
it, arrested. The National Guard is spoiled, Paris is 
spoiled, by weakness and ignorance of the country. 
I Avish no tribune of the people. Remember it is I 
who am the grand tribune ; then the people will 
always do what suits its real interests, which are the 
object of all my thoughts." 

During the three days which the Emperor spent 
at Rheims, the 14th, 15th, and 16th of March, 1814, 



56 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 

he was much more a monarch than a general, and he 
busied himself with the internal affairs of the Empire 
as carefully as if it had been at peace. Very striking 
is the authoritative tone which marked all his words 
and letters to the very end of the campaign, even to 
his abdication. Nothing had discouraged him. It 
was in vain that the forces of the Coalition grew 
while his own dwindled ; in vain that he received 
from Paris the most alarming news ; in vain that he 
saw treachery encompassing him on every side like a 
rising tide ; he looked at danger with a fearless eye, 
and still braved fortune, which had so long been the 
humblest of his slaves. 



V. 

THE CHATILLON CONGRESS. 

THE Congress of Ch^tillon was drawing to an 
end, and the plenipotentiaries of France, Eng- 
land, Austria, Prussia, and Russia were about to sep- 
arate without having been able to accomplish any- 
tliing in the way of peace. Before we go on with 
the study of the military events, let us take a glance 
at this fruitless effort of diplomacy. All its phases 
we have studied in the archives of the Ministry of 
Foreign Affairs, and most of the documents that we 
shall cite have never been printed. 

It is our impression that if Napoleon could have 
contented himself with the frontiers of 1792, he 
would have saved his crown ; but he desired the nat- 
ural boundaries of France, and the Allies were abso- 
lutely determined to refuse them. Consequently the 
negotiations moved in a vicious circle, and all the 
arguments of the plenipotentiaries were but a futile 
war of words. At times Napoleon seemed disposed 
to yield, but as soon as he achieved any success in 
the field, he tossed his head and rejected with scorn 
what he regarded as insulting propositions. At the 

57 



68 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 

beginning, tlie efforts of diplomacy had filled loyal 
Frenchmen with hope, and the traitors with fear, for 
the traitors would have preferred the ruin of Napo- 
leon to the safety of France ; soon, however, it be- 
came clear that the voice of the plenipotentiaries was 
drowned by the roar of cannon and that the tremen- 
dous conflict of France with Europe was to be ended, 
not by the pen, but by the sword. The Congress 
which had met at Chatillon-sur-Seine, in the depart- 
ment of C6te-d'0r, close to the scene of war, seemed 
an irony of fate. Surprise was felt that fighting and 
negotiation should be going on simultaneously, and 
the diplomatists, who were treating one another with 
perfect courtesy, while their fellow-countrymen were 
slaughtering one another, produced a singular effect 
in this terrible drama. 

France had but one plenipotentiary to contend 
alone with Count Stadion, the Austrian representa- 
tive, Count Rasumovski, the Russian ; von Hum- 
boldt, the Prussian ; and the three English plenipo- 
tentiaries. Lord Cathcart, Sir Charles Stuart, and 
Lord Aberdeen. This sole representative of France 
was General de Caulaincourt, Duke of Vicenza, a 
brave soldier, a man of honor, a sturdy patriot. It is 
easy to imagine what he must have suffered in main- 
taining his most difficult position. This brave officer, 
always bold and dashing on the battle-field, had become 
distinctly moderate because he was convinced that 
the only hope of safety for France and for the Em- 
peror lay in peace. He argued his cause before 



THE CHATILLON CONGRESS. 59 

Napoleon with admirable frankness, and we are safe 
in saying that if his prudent counsels had been fol- 
lowed, the Empire would have been saved. Among 
the Allies, especially the English and the Austrian, 
we believe that there was no ill-will towards the 
Emperor ; only, they had decided not to grant better 
conditions than those which had been accorded the 
Bourbons. That is what Napoleon could never com- 
prehend. To the last he imagined that his marriage 
would bring him sooner or later the sympathies of 
Austria, and he let himself be deluded by this expec- 
tation, which the Duke of Vicenza, more clear-sighted 
than his master, never shared for a moment. 

It was a melancholy situation for this man who 
had filled the highest diplomatic posts at a period 
when France had been feared and admired, and now 
was forced to carry on negotiations grievous and 
humiliating. He had a hard position between the 
cruel demands of the Allies and the Emperor's ob- 
stinacy which rendered argument impossible. Cau- 
laincourt was able to perform his difficult duties with 
nobility and dignity, and the study of the negotia- 
tions, which were thus made so laborious that no one 
else could have handled them at all, does the greatest 
honor to his intelligence and to his character. His- 
tory, we are sure, will render justice to this excellent 
man. 

The Allies showed so little eagerness for negoti- 
ating that the Duke of Vicenza waited for a month 
at the outposts for the conference to begin. It did 



60 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 

not open till February 4, 1814, at Cliatillon. The 
day before he had written to Marshal Berthier this 
letter : " I write to Your Highness as the most 
devoted of the Emperor's servants. There has been 
another battle [that of Rothiere] and the enemy have 
won another victory. Will not this stand in the way 
of our negotiations, make every question more diffi- 
cult, and lead them to add to their demands ? The 
evil genius that for three years has marred the happy 
destiny of the Emperor still haunts him. Has he 
not yet brought him sufficient misery ? Tell the true 
state of things to His Majesty. Show him how seri- 
ous matters are ; that the slightest delay may imperil 
everything without bringing any advantage. Tell 
me plainly, Prince, have you an army? Can we 
discuss the conditions for a fortnight, or must we 
accept everything at once ? If no one has the cour- 
age to tell me our real condition, I have no surer 
ground than the vague statements in M. de Bassano's 
gazette. It is with tales of that sort that we have 
lost all our conquests ; and they will not help to save 
France. It is not my fault, for I am continually 
begging the Emperor to give me his orders, rather 
with a view of serving and satisfying him than of 
seeking to shun responsibility. In the name of our 
master, in the name of all you hold most dear, speak 
to him. Prince ; write to me, and let us save the 
throne and the country ! " 

The Emperor, who was then in a most critical posi- 
tion, made no explanation. He simply left the Duke 



THE CHATILLON CONGRESS. 61 

of Vicenza free to act as he pleased, reserving the 
right to disavow him if he desired. Hence the Duke 
of Bassano wrote from Troyes to the French plenipo- 
tentiary, February 5, 1814: "I have sent you a 
messenger with a letter of His Majesty and the 
renewal of the full powers which you asked for. 
When His Majesty was leaving this city, he charged 
me to send 3^ou this, and to tell you in so many 
words that His Majesty gives you carte blanche to 
conduct the negotiations to a happy end, to save the 
capital, and prevent a battle on which the last hopes 
of the nation shall depend." 

On the receipt of this unexpected authorization, 
Caulaincourt wrote to the Emperor, February 6 : " I 
had started with my hands tied, and I receive un- 
limited powers. I was restrained, and now I am 
urged on. Yet I am not informed of the reasons for 
this change. In my ignorance of the real state of 
affairs, I cannot judge what it requires and what it 
permits : whether it is such that I ought to consent 
blindly to everything — and there is no room for 
discussion or delay — or whether to discuss at least 
the most essential points I have several days before 
me or only one, or whether I have not even a 
moment." 

February 7, the plenipotentiaries of the Allies 
showed a rough draft of the demands of the Powers, 
demanding that France should return to the boun- 
daries of 1792, and should have nothing to say about 
the fate of the countries to be ceded. What should 



62 THE INVASION OF 18 14. 



be done with Poland, Saxony, Westphalia, Belgium, 
Italy, how Bavaria, Wiirtemberg, Switzerland, were 
to be treated, was not to concern France. Finally, 
an answer, yes or no, was demanded, before the con- 
ference should begin. As Thiers says, " Certainly 
Napoleon had misused victory; but even in the 
intoxication of Rivoli, of Austerlitz, of Jena, of 
Friedland, he had never treated the vanquished in 
that way." Nevertheless, the Duke of Vicenza 
appeared inclined to accept these harsh terms, but 
on one condition : that he should be at least assured 
that by accepting them, he could at once stop the 
enemy, and thus save Paris and the Imperial throne. 
It was answered that there would be a suspension of 
hostilities only in case of their immediate unreserved 
acceptance, and only after the ratification of the 
treaty. The next day, February 8, it was announced 
that the conference was suspended. 

Then the French plenipotentiary, in the deepest 
despair, wrote to Prince Metternich, who was with 
the Emperor of Austria, the following letter : '' Cha- 
tillon, February 8, 1814. You have given me leave, 
Prince, to express myself to you without reserve. I 
have already done so, and I shall continue to do so ; 
it is a consolation which I should find it hard to deny 
myself. I regret more every day that it is not with 
you that I have to treat. If I could have foreseen 
this, I should not have accepted the appointment, I 
should not have been here. I should be with the 
army ; and I could at least find in battle a death 



THE CIIATILLON CONGRESS. 63 

which I should count as a blessing, if I cannot serve 
here my sovereign and my country. . . . Do the 
Allies wish to get time to reach Paris ? I will not 
ask you, Prince, to think of the consequences to the 
Empress of such an event. Should she be compelled 
to flee before her father's troops, when her august 
husband is ready to sign a peace? But I will tell 
you that all France is not in Paris ; that with the 
capital occupied, the French may think that the time 
for sacrifices is past ; that feelings, now repressed for 
several reasons, may awaken, and that the arrival of 
the Allies at Paris may be the beginning of a series 
of events which Austria may not be the last to regret 
having overlooked. Now, ought we to end by being 
overwhelmed? Is it to the interest of Austria that 
we should be? What profit, what glory, can she 
expect if we succumb under the assaults of all Eu- 
rope? You, my Prince, you have a chance to win 
vast glory, but on one condition, that you remain in 
control of affairs; and your only way of securing 
your hold is by stopping their course by a speedy 
peace. We refuse no reasonable sacrifice. We only 
wish to know all that are asked of us, for whose 
advantage we are to make them, and whether, by 
making them, we can have the certainty of putting 
an end to the horrors of war. See to it. Prince, that 
all these questions are put in perfect sincerity. I 
shall not delay my answer. You are assuredly too 
wise not to perceive that our demand is as just as our 
disposition is moderate. Cannot Your Excellency 



64 THE INVASION OF 1S14-. 

come with M. de Nesselrode and spend three hours 
here with Lord Castlereagh ? It would well accord 
with the character of the Emperor of Austria, with 
the heart of the Empress's father, to consent to an 
expedition which might in a single morning terminate 
a struggle now without an object, and one that costs 
humanity so many tears ! " 

After a week's interruptions, the meetings of the 
Congress were resumed, and Prince Metternich thus 
answered the letter of the Duke of Vicenza : " Troyes, 
February 15, 1814. We have just started the nego- 
tiations again, my dear Duke, and I can assure Your 
Excellency that it is not an easy thing to be the min- 
ister of the Coalition. All your kind words of regret 
at not seeing me at Chatillon can only spring from 
your personal feelings of which you have given me so 
many proofs. I have already recommended to you 
Count Stadion. Take my word for it, Lord Castle- 
reagh is also a man of the best sort, upright, loyal, 
without passion, and so without prejudice. It needs 
a combination of men like the English ministers of 
the present time to render possible the great task at 
which you are working, and which, I flatter myself, 
will be crowned with success. Your Excellency has 
no reason to regret accepting your position. It is a 
great one only in difficult times. I enclose a let- 
ter from the Mesgrigny family to their brothers, 
sons, etc. Be good enough to forward it to them. 
They are excellent people who have the good for- 
tune to have me in their house, — a real piece of good 



THE CTIATILLON CONGRESS. (j5 

fortune, for I don't eat them. War, dear Duke, is a 
horrible thing, especially when it is waged with fifty 
thousand Cossacks and Baskirs " Certainly diploma- 
tists have their own ways of writing, and this lively 
style was in marked contrast to the gravity of the 
events ! 

Meanwhile, Napoleon, who for a moment had 
thought that all Avas lost, had won the battles of 
Champaubert, Montmirail, and Vauchamps, and 
intoxicated by his success, had imagined himself 
nearer to Munich and Vienna than were the Allies 
to jParis. Then he wrote to Caulaincourt this let- 
ter: "Nangis, February 18. I. gave you carte blanche 
to save Paris and avoid a battle, which was the 
nation's last hope. The battle has been fought; 
Providence has favored our side. I have made 
thirty or forty thousand prisoners, have captured 
two hundred cannon, a great number of generals, 
and destro,yed several armies almost without striking 
a blow. Yesterday I routed the arui}^ of Prince 
Schwarzenberg, which I hope to destroy before it has 
recrossed our frontier. Your attitude must remain 
the same ; you must do everything to secure peace ; 
but I desire that you sign nothing without my order, 
because I alone know how I stand. No, General, I 
want only a solid and honorable peace, and that can 
only be on the bases proposed at Frankfort [the 
natural frontiers]. If the Allies had accepted your 
propositions on the 9th, there would have been no 
battle ; I should not have run the risk at a moment 



6Q THE INVASION OF 1814. 

when the slightest ill-success would have ruined 
France ; in short, I should not have known the secret 
of their weakness. It is proper that I should have in 
return the advantages of the chances which have 
turned in my favor. I desire peace, but that would 
not be a peace which should impose on France more 
humiliating conditions than the Frankfort proposi- 
tions. My position is certainly more favorable than 
when the Allies were at Frankfort ; they were able to 
defy me, I had obtained no advantage over them, 
and they were far from my territory. To-day it is 
very different ; I have won many victories over them, 
victories unequalled in a somewhat illustrious career 
of twenty years. I am ready to cease hostilities and 
to let the enemy withdraw unmolested if they will 
sign the preliminaries based on the Frankfort propo- 
sitions." 

Napoleon believed the Coalition much more shaken 
than it really was. At the meeting of February 17, 
the plenipotentiaries of the Allies presented a series 
of preliminary articles even more insulting than the 
previous drafts. It was simply stated that Germany 
would form a federation ; that Holland would be en- 
larged by the addition of Belgium, and be made a 
kingdom ; that Italy was to be independent of France ; 
that Austria would have possessions there ; and that 
France would return to the boundaries of 1792. 

When Napoleon, who believed that he had scattered 
terror among his enemies, heard of their propositions, 
he was filled with wrath. He wrote from Surville to 



THE CHATILLON CONGRESS. 67 

the Duke of Vicenza, February 19 : "I am so deeply 
moved by the infamous proposition which you send 
to me, that I feel dishonored by the mere fact that it 
was made to you. . . . Everything they tell you is 
false. The Austrians are beaten in Italy, and far 
from being at Meaux, I shall soon be at Chatillon. . . . 
I shall send you word of my intentions from Troyes 
or Chatillon ; but I think I should have done better 
to lose Paris than to see such propositions made to 
the French people. You are always talking about 
the Bourbons. I had rather see the Bourbons in 
France, under reasonable conditions, than the infa- 
mous propositions which you send to me." 

The same day, February 19, 1814, Caulaincourt, 
who was far from taking the same optimistic view of 
things, wrote to the Duke of Bassano : " Thanks to 
your good news, I am full of hope. But let us not, 
from lack of proper moderation, lose the chance to 
make a peace which will be ever honorable, if it is 
truly reasonable. Delays or claims made now, when 
Europe is in such a state of exasperation with us, 
may ruin everything in a moment. . . . Plead the 
cause of peace, Duke ; it is that of the Emperor's real 
glory and of the real interest of France." 

Caulaincourt did not yet wholly despair of a happy 
outcome of the negotiations ; Lord Castlereagh, who, 
as the head of the English Cabinet, had come to Ch^ 
tillon, though he took no part in the meetings of the 
Congress, while exercising a preponderant influence, 
had not yet displayed a systematic hostility to Napo- 



68 THE INVASION OF I8I4. 

leon personally. Hence the Duke of Vicenza wrote 
to the Duke of Bassano, February 21 : " In general, 
the way the English express themselves, their tone, 
and the moderation of Lord Castlereagh's opinions, 
the very proper way in which they speak of the 
Emperor and of France, have been really remarkable. 
I owe it to the truth to render them this justice." 

The plenipotentiaries of the Allies, while polite in 
externals, were pitiless in fact. February 28, they 
informed the Duke of Vicenza that they granted 
him a delay of ten days for his answer to their propo- 
sition of February 17 ; that they were ready to dis- 
cuss any modifications that France might suggest, 
but that- they would absolutely refuse any which 
should depart in the least from the essential points 
of the proposition. It was agreed that if this delay 
of ten days, expiring March 10, should pass without 
their coming to an understanding, the Congress 
should be at once dissolved. 

At the same time. Lord Castlereagh was the pro- 
moter of the famous agreement which was the germ 
of the Holy Alliance. March 1, 1814, England, 
Austria, Prussia, and Russia agreed, by the treaty of 
Chaumont, to furnish each a permanent contingent 
of one hundred and fifty thousand men until the war 
should be ended. England offered in addition an 
annual subsidy of one hundred and fifty million 
francs, to be divided equally between Russia, Prussia, 
and Austria. Lord Castlereagh did not stop there. 
He bound the four Powers for twenty years from the 



THE CHATILLON CONGRESS. 69 

next peace. They were each, when the war was over, 
to maintain sixty thousand men for twenty years, 
for the use of that one of them which France might 
try to attack, if, after peace was once made, she 
should renew her assaults against her neighbors. 

Caulaincourt was not informed of the treaty of 
Chaumont, but he perceived that the Allies were 
forming serious resolutions, and, March 3, he wrote 
a private letter to the Emperor, expressing his uneasi- 
ness ; it ran as follows : — 

" Sire : The details which I have to report to Your 
Majesty seeming to me alarming, I make them the 
subject of a private letter. May this report be re- 
ceived with less bitterness than those I usually have 
the honor of sending to Your Majesty, and prove to 
him that his plenipotentiary has the most thorough 
conviction of the dangers of the throne when he 
ventures to recur to questions and sacrifices which he 
knows are equally painful. . . . Your Majesty has not 
been ignorant that the princes of the house of Bour- 
bon who have left England were established on our 
frontiers, and that the Count d'Artois, who was just 
now in Switzerland, has settled at Vesoul. To-day 
he is said to be even nearer the enemy's headquarters. 
This Prince was able to come to Switzerland without 
the consent of all the Allies, but he could not come 
into France or stay on the line mainly occupied by 
the Austrian forces save with the consent of Your 
Majesty's father-in-law. Hence his presence is more 
than a Russian and English menace. . . . Your 



70 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

Majesty is more competent than any one to draw all 
the consequences from this apparition under such a 
flag. It is, I shall be told, a mere bugbear, an empty 
threat. The present generation has no knowledge 
of the Bourbons, and consequently takes no interest 
in them ; old people have forgotten them, and the 
people of La Vendee, if they remember their coura- 
geous efforts in behalf of these princes, have not lost 
the memory of their abandonment and of their stay 
at lie Dieu. I know and think of all that. Sire ; I 
know too that the inhabitants of La Vendee owe to 
you the reconstruction of their manors and the pres- 
ent prosperity of their country. Hence I should not 
ascribe excessive importance to this resurrection if I 
did not infer that Austria, being void of shame for 
such conduct, is ready to disown us. In this state of 
affairs it is the duty of the man placed by Your 
Majesty as his first political sentinel to call all your 
attention to the consequence of this appearance. 
You should believe me when I return to this grave 
matter ; for you know that no interest, no passion, 
moves me against the Bourbons, since, the Revolu- 
tion having made me its victim and then a soldier, it 
is not it, but my own sword and my Emperor, that 
have made me what I am. You know too that the 
memories of my infancy and my respect for misfor- 
tune do not make me dream of these princes, since, 
in my opinion, the interest and the glory of my coun- 
try oppose them now, as well as our oath to our 
Emperor. I hope, then, that these reflections will 



THE CHATILLON CONGRESS. 71 

give weight to my urgency, which comes from my 
profound conviction." 

In the same letter the Duke of Vicenza reported an 
important conversation which he had just had with 
an intimate friend of Prince Metternich: "Prince 
Esterhazy, whose relations with Prince Metternich 
are well known to Your Majesty, and who has been 
with him since the beginning of the campaign, has 
just passed a few moments here. . . . These are the 
remarks of his to which I paid particular attention : 
' It is the personal opinion of Emperor Francis and 
of Metternich that peace is more and more imper- 
atively necessary for France. If it is delayed, it is 
impossible to foresee how far things will go, for 
defeats would add to the exasperation of the Allies as 
much as would success. . . . Your vast ambition and 
a thousand circumstances have produced the present 
crisis and summoned all Europe to arms. In the 
present state of Europe, millions of men will march 
if the eight hundred thousand now blocking every 
road to Paris are not enough. ... It is too clear 
that your sovereign, deceiving himself with the vain 
hope of restoring his condition by gaining a battle, 
stakes on this single card not only the existence of 
France, but his throne, and even his life. . . . Why 
push things to the bitter end, when we cannot conceal 
the fact that every one has more than one insult to 
avenge? Had it not been for Austria, the Allies 
would already have lost some of the regard for 
France, which cannot last long if we postpone the 



72 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

signing of a peace ; for in the present war Austria 
alone is without passion. Emperor Francis loves his 
daughter and takes a real interest in his son-in-law ; 
why reject his good advice? Before long his good 
intentions and those of Prince Metternich will be 
unable further to control passions inflamed by the 
prolongation of the struggle. ... Is there then no 
way of enlightening the Emperor Napoleon about his 
position and of saving him, if he insists on ruining 
himself; and has he absolutely placed his own fate, 
that of his son, your own, on his last cannon? 
Would you rather have France pillaged and the Rus- 
sians in Paris than treat for peace? Will all your 
audacity and the courage of despair prevent your 
being overwhelmed by the multitude that threatens 
you? Believe me, make peace. We are enemies — 
you know it better than any one, for your sovereign 
has confided to you the conditions of peace — only 
because the Emperor Napoleon has made us such.' " 

After thus recording the words of Prince Ester- 
hazy, the Duke of Vicenza closed his letter with 
these words : " Your Majesty can no longer hide from 
himself that what was possible at Frankfort is im- 
possible at Chatillon. The enemy have tested the 
national and patriotic resistance which they feared, 
and they are, besides, in force at the gates of Paris. 
Doubtless these are not consoling reflections, and it 
is hard for me to address such language to Your 
Majesty; but I owe to you absolute truthfulness. 
Austria and Prussia, when conquered by you, gave 



THE CHATILLON CONGRESS. 73 

you for saving themselves more than one example of 
resignation ; this virtue has been of service to those 
cabinets, since now they speak as conquerors. Imi- 
tate them, Sire, while your capital is still uninvadecl 
and victory has not yet deserted you. Your Majesty 
can no longer deceive yourself. You see that our 
ranks are too empty to triumph over so many foes. 
You have learned that your fortune has been able to 
save nothing but our laurels. Hence you have had it 
proved that we must await from the future what the 
present denies us, and that only on this condition 
can the hour of a noble and glorious vengeance ever 
strike." 

The Duke of Yicenza, fully appreciating the re- 
marks of Prince Esterhazy, went on : " Does Prince 
Esterhazy's conduct have any connection with the 
appearance of the Bourbons ? He said nothing to me 
bearing upon them, and in speaking of them I took 
care not to admit that Your Majesty could have any 
uneasiness in this regard. Does it have any connec- 
tion with other circumstances or with arrangements 
now unknown to us ? Time alone can tell. We 
may presume everything when we have everything 
to fear. By what he called ' regard for France,' etc., 
may he not have understood a plan to admit the 
Bourbons in the case the war is prolonged? Every- 
thing that occurs, everything said, everything that 
threatens us, shows that our foes regard all means as 
lawful. . . . Despite this state of affairs, I, like Your 
Majesty, would take counsel only of my courage, if I 



74 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 

knew that you had in your hands one hundred and 
twenty thousand men to face the storm ; but if, as I 
fear, you have less than eighty thousand, but one 
thing is left to do, — to yield at this moment to united 
Europe ; for peace, I repeat, has become the desire and 
necessity of the French; there is no safety but in 
peace. Our dangers are too real, and the hours left 
us are, it is clear, counted by our relentless enemies. 
Possibly Your Majesty will charge these reflections 
with weakness ; I think, however, and it cannot escape 
you, that courage is required to make them. How- 
ever, I am convinced that the time is come when no 
consideration should stop me." 

It is almost impossible to tell the truth to sover- 
eigns in the days of their prosperity ; it is not easy 
to make them listen to it when adversity has given 
them lessons by which they should profit. This frank 
and loyal letter of Caulaincourt's displeased the Em- 
peror. On hearing of this unreasonable displeasure, 
the faithful servant wrote to Napoleon this admirable 
letter : — 

"Chatillon, March 5, 1814. Sire: I must state 
clearly to Your Majesty how much I am pained by 
finding my devotion misunderstood. You are dissat- 
isfied with me ; you show this, and you charged M. 
de Rumigny to tell me. My frankness has displeased 
you ; and you call it rudeness and harshness. You 
reproach me with seeing the Bourbons everywhere, 
and yet, perhaps wrongly, I scarcely mentioned 
them. Your Majesty forgets that it is you who 



THE CHATILLON CONGEESS. 75 

first spoke of them in letters written or dictated to 
me. To foresee, like 3^011, the chances that may be 
offered to them by the passions of some of the Allies, 
those that might be produced by an unhappy contin- 
gency, and by the interest with which their sufferings 
might inspire this country, if the presence of a Prince 
and a party should arouse this old memory at a criti- 
cal moment, would not be so unreasonable, if things 
were pushed to an extreme. In the present condition 
of men's minds, in this feverish state of Europe, when 
France is so anxious and fatigued, every possibility 
should be faced ; wisdom commands this. I well un- 
derstand that Your Majesty should desire to commu- 
nicate the force of his nature, the fire of his great 
character to all who serve him, and to inspire every one 
with his energy. But your minister. Sire, does not need 
this spur. Adversity arouses his courage instead of 
casting it down. . . . No one would more readily 
than I console Your Majesty, soften all the pain that 
the circumstances and the necessary sacrifices inflict 
upon you, but the interest of France, that of your 
dynasty, command me to be above all things cautious 
and honest. ... Is it my fault if I am the only one 
to use this language of devotion to Your Majesty, if 
those who are with you and agree with me dread to 
displease you, and, desirous of sparing you amid so 
many trials, dare not say what it is my duty to tell 
you?" 

The conclusion of this letter is both noble and 
touching. It is easy to see all the anguish that rent 



76 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

Caulaincourt's heart when he wrote these Hnes. 
" What glory, what advantage, could there be for me 
in signing this same peace, if it should ever be made ? 
Will not this peace, or rather these sacrifices, ever be 
for Your Majesty a source of lasting dissatisfaction 
with your plenipotentiary ? Will not many French- 
men who now feel its necessity blame me for it six 
months after it shall have saved your throne? . . . 
Since I am no blinder about my position than I am 
about Your Majesty's, you ought to believe me. I 
see things as they are. Fear has united all the sov- 
ereigns, discontent has collected all the Germans; 
the bond is too strong for us to break. In accepting 
the ministry as I did, in undertaking thig negotiation, 
I devoted myself to your service, to save my country. 
I had no other aim, and that would seem to me high 
and noble enough to be above all sacrifices. In my 
position I could not do otherwise, and that is what 
decided me. Your Majesty may say of me all the ill 
you please ; you cannot think it in your heart, and you 
will be forced always to do me the justice of regard- 
ing me as one of your most faithful subjects and 
one of the best citizens of this France which I 
cannot be suspected of wishing to degrade, since I 
would give my life to save one of its villages." 

Meanwhile, the fatal limit set by the plenipoten- 
tiaries of the Coalition, the 10th of March, had come. 
On that day the Duke of Vicenza handed in a state- 
ment referring to the protocol, and recalling what 
the different states had gained since 1792. He 



THE CIIATILLON CONGRESS. 77 

expressed himself as follows : " After demanding so 
many sacrifices of France, but one was left to claim, 
— that of its honor. The proposal tends to deprive 
her of the right of intervening in favor of one of 
her former unhappy allies. The plenipotentiary of 
France having asked whether the King of Saxony 
was to be put again in possession of his states, could 
not get an answer. From France are demanded 
cessions and renunciations, and it is desired that she 
should make these cessions without knowing to 
whom, by what title, and in what proportions, will 
belong what she shall have ceded. It is intended 
that she shall not know who will be her nearest 
neighbors. It is desired to arrange, without her, 
the fate of countries she shall have renounced, and 
the way of living of those with which her sovereign 
was bound by close ties. It is desired without her, to 
make arrangements determining the general system 
of European equilibrium. It is desired that she 
should have no part in the arrangement of a whole 
of which she forms a considerable and necessary part. 
It is, moreover, desired that by subscribing to these 
conditions she should be in some sort excluded from 
European society. . . . Attacked at once by all the 
Powers united against her, the French nation, more 
than any other, needs peace, and desires it more than 
any other; but every people, like every generous man, 
sets honor even above life." 

After hearing this statement, the plenipotentiaries 
broke out into the most violent abuse. Where, they 



78 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 

asked, is the counter-project which has been expected 
for a month and had been solemnly promised for 
March 10 ? The Duke of Vicenza succeeded only 
with great difficulty in calming them and in obtain- 
ing a few days' respite. At last, March 15, he handed 
in the counter-project, which was Napoleon's own 
work. Therein the Emperor agreed to cede the 
Dutch Brabant and various parcels of territory on 
the right bank of the Rhine, but he demanded a sum 
of money for Prince Eugene, another for Princess 
Elisa, and kept the Rhine, and the Alps, Antwerp, 
Cologne, Mayence, Chamb^ry, Nice. The allied 
plenipotentiaries regarded this counter-project as an 
insulting defiance. 

Then Prince Metternich wrote to the Duke of 
Vicenza a final private letter, in which he said : " If 
the conditions of the counter-project are the Emperor 
Napoleon's ultimatum, peace is impossible, and the 
fate of France and of Europe will be decided by arms. 
It would be hard, Duke, to describe to you all the 
painful emotions of the Emperor, my master. He 
loves his daughter, and he sees her exposed to new 
anxieties which can only increase. The more com- 
plicated the political questions, the more personal 
they become. The Emperor Napoleon has not sec- 
onded the favorable intentions which the Emperor 
Francis has always manifested. Possibly we are 
nearer peace by the breaking off of these futile nego- 
tiations. That is the sole object of our prayers." 

March 18, the plenipotentiaries of the Allies read 



THE CHATILLON CONGRESS. 79 

a formal note in which they stated that, France hav- 
ing exactly reproduced all the conditions recognized 
as inacceptable by Europe, the conferences were defi- 
nitely broken off. Yet a final note was exchanged 
the next day, March 19 ; it was about the Pope. It 
ran thus : " The undersigned, the plenipotentiaries of 
the allied courts, seeing with a deep and profound 
regret the fruitlessness of the negotiation undertaken 
at Chatillon for the tranquillity of Europe, cannot dis- 
pense with occupying themselves before their depart- 
ure, by means of the present note to His Excellency, 
the French Plenipotentiary, with a subject which is 
foreign to political dissensions, and which should 
always have remained so. In insisting on the inde- 
pendence of Italy, the allied Powers had intended to 
replace the Holy Father in his former capital. The 
French government has shown the same disposition in 
the counter-project presented by its plenipotentiary. 
It would be unfortunate if so just and natural a design, 
agreed to by the two parties, were to remain without 
effect through reasons in no way concerning the 
functions which the Head of the Catholic Church is 
religiously bound to perform. The religion professed 
by a great part of the nations now at war — justice 
and general equity, humanity ; in a word — are equally 
interested in setting His Holiness at liberty, and the 
undersigned are convinced that they have only to ex- 
press this wish, and in the name of the courts to ask 
this act of justice of the French government, to 
engage it to put the Holy Father in a condition to 



80 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 

satisfy the needs of the Catholic Church, by the 
enjoyment of perfect liberty. The undersigned avail 
themselves of this opportunity to reassure His Excel- 
lency, the French Plenipotentiary, of their high 
consideration. [Signed.] Count Stadion, Count 
Rasumowski, Cathcart, Humboldt, Charles Stuart, 
Aberdeen." 

The Duke of Vicenza answered this note thus : 
" The undersigned. Plenipotentiary of France, will 
be the more glad to transmit to his court the note, 
dated to-day, of Their Excellencies, the allied plenipo- 
tentiaries, since the Emperor, his master, in the coun- 
ter-project which he was charged with presenting on 
the 15th, has fu'st shown the interest he took in the 
Holy Father." 

Thus ended the Congress of Ch^tillon. Of the 
four allied Powers, only one, Austria, is Roman Cath- 
olic ; and at the last moment when the negotiations 
on all other points are broken off, they occupy them- 
selves with the Holy See. And the French plenipo- 
tentiary pays homage to Napoleon's prisoner. That 
was the last word of the Congress, which failed so 
disastrously for the Empire ! In a few days the 
Emperor, at the end of his resources, exhausted, be- 
trayed by fortune, was to reappear at Fontainebleau 
in the apartment next to the one that served as the 
prison of Pius VII. Nothing is more impressive 
than these unexpected changes in history. In this 
curious interweaving of events, outdoing human cal- 
culations, we see new proof of the maxim : " Man 
proposes; God disposes." 



THE CHATILLON CONGBiJSS. 81 

March 19, the Duke of Vicenza withdrew from the 
other plenipotentiaries, and, on the 20th, all the lega- 
tions left Chatillon to return to the headquarters of the 
different armies. These useless protocols, these vain 
diplomatic debates, as they are recorded in the vol- 
umes in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, entitled 
*' The Chatillon Congress," are melancholy reading. 
Let us turn to the military operations where we left 
off at the beginning of the second fortnight of March, 
1814. 



VI. 



ABCIS-SUR-AUBE. 



AT the beginning of the second fortnight of 
March, 1814, Napoleon did not yet despair. 
On reaching Rheims on the 14th, he found that war- 
like and patriotic city illuminated and echoing with 
cries of " Long live the Emperor ! " He stayed there 
three days, directing the complicated affairs of his 
Empire with imperturbable calm and untiring activity. 
Meanwhile Bliicher, at the head of the army of Sile- 
sia, was resting quietly on the hill of Laon, and 
Schwarzenberg, although victorious over the Duke of 
Reggio, seemed chained to Troyes. Napoleon, ever 
confident in his fortune, in spite of so many disasters, 
awaited some misstep on the part of his adversaries, 
to fall upon them with the swiftness of lightning. 
For him it was of the utmost importance to prevent 
the junction of the armies of Silesia and of Bohemia, 
and to strike a strong blow upon Schwarzenberg's 
forces while the two armies were still separate. 

The Emperor determined to attack the enemy 
in spite of their numerical superiority. He ordered 
Marmont and Mortier, with their eighteen thousand 
82 



ARCIS-S UR-A UBE. 83 

men, to oppose Bliiclier's march to Paris with a hun- 
dred and twenty thousand men, and he himself, with 
about seventeen thousand, advanced against Schwarz- 
enberg's one hundred thousand. Thus a handful of 
soldiers, recruits wasted by suffering, or scanty vete- 
rans in the empty and disorganized ranks, were about 
to hurl themselves with the courage of heroes against 
the formidable army of Bohemia. 

This fearless attacking column, led by Napoleon, 
started from Rheims, March 17, and reached Epernay 
the same day ; then the Emperor received bad news ; 
namely, that the English had entered Bordeaux by 
the invitation of the mayor. March 19, the army 
advanced over the bridge of Plancy, by the ford of 
Charny, over the two arms of the Aube, through 
the space between the Aube and the Seine, and 
crossed the Seine itself. The highway between 
Troyes and Paris was in their hands, and the enemy 
knew a moment of terror. The tidings of Napo- 
leon's return to the Seine disconcerted the leaders 
of the Coalition. The main headquarters of the 
Allies were withdrawn to Troyes, and the heavy bag- 
gage was sent still further back; and a retreat to 
Bar was proposed. The Emperor Alexander was so 
anxious that he himself said that half of his hair 
would turn gray. This alarm, however, was of but 
brief duration. The Czar decided that instead of re- 
treating, the armies of Silesia and of Bohemia ought to 
unite in the plains of Chalons. Consequently Bliicher 
drew near to the banks of the Marne, and Schwarz- 



84 THE INVASION OF ISI4. 

enberg moved on Arcis ; there it was that Napoleon, 
under the impression that he had to face an isolated 
army corps, was about to meet the whole army of 
Bohemia. 

The battle of Arcis-sur-Aube, which was fought 
March 20, 1814, and continued the next day, was the 
last battle but one that Napoleon fought; the very 
last being Waterloo. Never was the Emperor in 
greater peril. For the first time, perhaps, since that 
terrible campaign had begun, he was overwhelmed by 
despair and anxious to die. When the enemy were 
on the point of surrounding him, he tried to draw 
his sword, but it had rusted in its scabbard, and it 
required the strength of his two equerries, Foulers 
and Saint Aignan, to get it out. At the same moment, 
a shell fell before a battalion of conscripts, who were 
not yet used to the sight, and Napoleon rode his 
horse over the shell to teach them to despise danger, 
and doubtless, too, to die the death of a hero. Ex- 
celmans tried to stop him. " Let him go," shouted 
Sebastiani ; '^ you see he does it on purpose : he wants 
to end it all." Napoleon wanted death, but death 
did not want him. The shell exploded, and for a 
moment he was lost to sight in a cloud of flame and 
smoke, but he came forth safe and sound : only his 
horse had been hit. The young soldiers, amazed at 
the Emperor's boldness, applauded him, and broke 
into cheers when he got on another horse. His dan- 
ger, however, only grew greater instead of less ; a 
band of Russian and Bavarian cavalry renewed their 



ARCIS-S UR-A UBE. 85 

charge. It seemed certain that Napoleon, who Avas 
defended by a niei'e handful of men, would be taken 
prisoner. General Drouot saved him : he saw a bat- 
tery abandoned in the rout, rallied the artillerymen, 
aimed the pieces himself, and firing into the mingled 
mass of the French and the enemy, finally cleared 
the ground : then the Emperor charged at the head 
of the four squadrons of his body-guard, and drove 
away their threatening assailants. 

In this way was the third birthday of the King of 
Rome celebrated. How vast the difference between 
the Tuileries of 1811 and this battle-field of 1814, 
between the salvos of artillery announcing the birth 
of an heir to this immense Empire and roar of cannon 
in this last battle but one, when the desperate war- 
rior vainly sought death I Napoleon was often to 
regret that he had been spared by shell and bullet at 
Arcis-sur-Aube, and remembered this when, a few 
weeks later, at Fontainebleau, after his abdication, he 
vainly attempted to poison himself. 

The battle of Arcis forms an heroic page in the 
Emperor's history : twenty thousand Frenchmen had 
held their ground against a body which was enlarged 
from forty thousand to ninety thousand men. When 
night came, the French army gathered under the 
walls of the houses in the suburbs, and the artillery 
duel continued. The castle of M. de la Briffe, the 
Emperor's headquarters, was thoroughly riddled by 
the cannon-balls. The next morning Napoleon was 
averse to retreating, and refused to believe in the 



1 

86 THE INVASION OF 18 14. 

great numerical superiority of the enemy ; when he 
was convinced by the evidence, after lashing the 
ground with his riding-whip, which he always did in 
moments of great excitement, he sacrificed his pride 
and commanded a retreat. There being but one 
bridge over the Aube, he had another built, and after 
keeping his troops deployed in front of Arcis while 
the second bridge was building, he suddenly with- 
drew them through the streets of the town, and fol- 
lowing them across the Aube, had both bridges de- 
stroyed. Prince Schwarzenberg, furious at seeing 
his prey escape, tried in vain to cross the river. This 
was on the part of the French a retreat, though an 
heroic retreat. Twice in ten days had the great 
general, so long invincible, been compelled to retreat : 
at Laon, before the army of Silesia ; at Arcis, before 
the army of Bohemia. His prestige was lost ; what 
more could he do ? It was no longer possible to fight 
against either one of the two armies ; how would it 
be when they had combined? Would he have to 
bow his head and humbly beg for the frontier of 
1792 ? The untiring hero never fancied for a moment 
that the time had come to yield. He devised a new 
plan, and determined to march towards the east, in 
the hope of uniting the garrisons in the fortresses 
and the armed peasants in the outlying departments, 
of cutting the communications of the Allies, and thus 
compelling them to suspend their march on Paris. 

Napoleon did not delay the execution of this new 
plan, which was bolder than anything he had yet 



ARCIS-S UR-A UBE. 87 

done. March 21, he had just abandoned Arc is and 
crossed the Aube ; Avhen he had got out of the pass, 
beyond Ormes, accompanied only by his equerry, 
Baron de Saint Aignan, he stopped and asked for his 
field-glass ; this he rested on the equerry's shoulder, 
while he examined the enemy's army. Then he re- 
mounted his horse and rode slowly and silently along 
the highroad. " His revery became so profound," 
says General de S^gur, " that his hands dropped the 
reins and hung motionless by his side. He happened 
at the time to be ascending a steep path alongside 
of a precipice, down which the least misstep might 
have thrown him. Saint Aignan, not stopping to 
choose his words in his eagerness, warned him that 
there was no railing: he barely heard him; doubt- 
less at that moment he was deciding on one of those 
important steps which are great or foolish, according 
to the event." 

Meanwhile, Marie Louise still deceived herself 
about the condition of France, and refused to believe 
that diplomatic negotiations were permanently broken 
off. Under this impression, she wrote to her father, 
March 22, a letter, in which she said : "The nation is 
full of courage and energy, the peasants are particu- 
larly aroused by the bad treatment they have received. 
Your troops may very probably be beaten. The Em- 
peror's armies are finer and stronger than ever. It is 
for your interest as well as ours to propose anew the 
Frankfort conditions. Otherwise you may be com- 
pelled to make a less favorable peace in a few 



88 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 

months." The letter ended with these entreaties- 
" In the name of all you hold most sacred, I beg of 
you, do not let yourself be carried away by the greed ; 
of the English, by the ambition and hatred of Count ' 
Stadion. If you do, you will sacrifice the interest of I 
your Empire, the happiness of your family, and your 
own peace of mind. The humiliating peace proposed 
to us it is impossible to accept. You may be sure 
that I know the Emperor and that he will never 
agree to it. You ought to return to the Frankfort 
conditions, the only ones advantageous to France and 
Austria." 

This appeal was made to deaf ears. The Allies, 
fired by their last victories, determined on destroying 
Napoleon. While Schwarzenberg, at the head of the 
army of Bohemia, forced the passage of the Aube at 
Arcis, Bliicher, with the army of Silesia, reached the 
banks of the Marne by way of Rheims. He had 
driven back towards Chateau Thierry the corps of 
the Duke of Ragusa and the Duke of Treviso. 
March 23, the scouts of the army of Silesia and of 
the army of Bohemia met at Poivre. A great cry of 
joy arose when these two great invading armies came 
in sight of each other. Never, since the time of At- 
tila had more soldiers been assembled on the vast plain 
between Chalons and Arcis-sur-Aube. Two hundred 
thousand allies, in a compact body, separated the 
thirty-six or forty thousand worn-out soldiers of 
Napoleon, on his way to Lorraine, from the twenty- 
thousand men of Marmont, Mortier, and Pacthod, 



ARCIS-SUE-A UBE. 



scattered between Vertus and Suzanne. The evening 
of March 23, the Allies issued a proclamation 
announcing to France the breaking off of the negoti- 
ations of Chatillon. The last scene of the military 
drama was approaching. 



VII. 



THE MARCH TO THE EAST. 

WITH such vast forces facing him, Napoleon 
was unable to move in the direction of his 
capital; hence he conceived another, bolder plan, 
which might have been successful if there had been 
no traitors in France. He resolved to march east- 
ward, and cut the base of the enemy's operations. In 
three days he could be at Metz, and there he could 
unite the garrisons of that city, of Mayence, Luxem- 
bourg, Thionville, Verdun, Strassburg, amounting to 
thirty thousand men, await a re-enforcement of fifteen 
thousand from the Low Countries, and thus soon be 
at the head of an army of one hundred thousand 
combatants. He hoped, moreover, that Marshal 
Suchet, who had been sent to take Augereau's place 
in command of the army of Lyons, would be able to 
move to BesauQon with forty thousand men, and that 
thus the face of things would be entirely changed. 
But while fearless youths and courageous veterans did 
prodigies of valor to save the glory of France, there 
were men who did not blush to become the auxiliaries 
and accomplices of the foreigners. They were not 
90 



THE MAliCH TO THE EAST. 91 

the men of whom Napoleon had asked the greatest 
sacrifices without paying them with promotion, with 
office, or with money, and who had shown their devo- 
tion by tireless effort. No ; they were the men whom 
he loaded with gold, with titles, with rewards of 
every sort, and who addressed him with the rankest 
flattery, and had times without number taken oaths 
of eternal fidelity. In the brilliant mansions which 
they owed to his generosity they formed their 
treacherous plans. 

France, if it had not been divided against itself, 
might have triumphed over all its enemies ; but 
it was divided into two hostile camps, — the Royalist 
and the Imperialist. There were men hastening to 
join the white flag of the Bourbons with the foreign 
flags, and eager to welcome the Cossacks on the boule- 
vards as liberators. In the presence of such senti- 
ments Napoleon's plans necessarily fell to the ground. 
It is easy to conceive the thoughts of the patriotic 
soldiers who had struggled so bravely against un- 
heard of difficulties. When they saw a handful of 
traitors overthrowing the whole glorious edifice, and 
that they were the victims of their fellow-country- 
men rather than of the foreigners, that all their heroic 
efforts and generous bloodshed had been thrown 
away, they exclaimed, " We have not been con- 
quered ; we have been betrayed ! " Their cry of 
grief and wrath will echo from one age to another as 
the sublime protest of lionor and loyalty ! 

The enemy hesitated on hearing of Napoleon's east- 



92 THE INVASION OF 181 4. 

ward march. " They were not ignorant," says M. de 
Beauchamp, in his History of the Campaign of 1814, 
" that secret and full instructions had reached the 
garrison of the frontiers on the Rhine and the Mo- 
selle, to march forth at a given signal, and to join 
the army to be sent into Lorraine. . . . But what 
required the most serious attention was the disposi- 
tion shown by a great many of the peasants of Lor- 
raine, Champagne, Alsace, Franche-Comte, and Bur- 
gundy, who it appeared . . . were ready to rise at 
the slightest defeat, to cut the bridges and destroy 
the roads, to burn the supplies, to annoy and starve 
out the enemy ; in a word, to change the war into a 
national uprising, in answer to Napoleon's efforts." 

An eye-witness who is above suspicion is Mr. Rob- 
ert Wilson, an Englishman, from whom we quote : 
"The Allies," he says, speaking of the campaign of 
1814, "were in a vicious circle, from which their 
only escape was the treachery of some of the French. 
They could not keep open the line of retreat, and 
yet retreat seemed unavoidable. This treachery that 
favored them, and had been carefully prepared, came 
into effect at the very moment Avhen Napoleon's suc- 
cess seemed assured; and his movement towards 
Saint Dizier, which should have secured the safety 
of his Empire, lost him his crown." 

Who were the Frenchmen whose treachery thus 
aided the foreigners ? Let us listen to one of them, 
the Abbe de Pradt, Archbishop ' of Mechlin, one of 
Napoleon's most prominent courtiers, a man whom he 



THE MARCH TO THE EAtiT. 93 

had loaded with benefits. In his account of the Res- 
toration, he sajs: " The Allies, thus occupying a new 
position amid unfamiliar surroundings, were anxious 
to depend on the information of people whom they 
supposed more familiar with the internal condi- 
tion of France. M. de Talleyrand and M. de Dal- 
berg had especially attracted their attention. . . . 
Though I had but few claims to this honor, it had 
yet been accorded me. Even our future had been 
provided for, in case it had been compromised by 
events. . . . Our meetings with the persons men- 
tioned above continued: sometimes they were fre- 
quent in one day. The Chatillon Congress was our 
bane. Not a day passed without our undermining 
and destroying the Emperor's power, without our 
hastening the day of his fall. The French armies lay 
between Paris and the Allies, and it was with the 
greatest difficulty that we maintained communication 
with them. The first one to triumph over the obstacles 
was M. de Vitrolles, and it was through him that the 
ministers of the great Powers began to receive posi- 
tive information about the condition of internal 
affairs, of which they had been in utter ignorance." 
M. de Vitrolles was a baron of the Empire, an 
Imperial official, a postal agent. M. de Lavalette, 
his superior, did not in the least suspect him, 
and entrusted him with the arrangement of regular 
communications with Italy, by passage through 
Switzerland and the rear of the enemy's army. M. 
de Vitrolles pretended to accept this mission, but 



94 THE INVASION OF 1814. 



really went to the headquarters of the Allies, and 
then to the Count d'Artois. 

As for M. de Talleyrand, whom the Emperor had 
made Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prince of Bene- 
vento, a high dignitary of the Empire, who to all 
appearance was the humble servant and attentive 
courtier of the Regent, he too conspired, but very 
prudently; for he desired to overthrow the Empire 
without himself running the slightest risk. While 
he was secretly weaving his Royalist plots, he made 
a great show of friendship for the Duke of Rovigo, 
the Minister of Police, and pretended to be very 
zealous in informing him of the plots and intrigues 
of the Count d'Artois. The Duke of Rovigo sus- 
pected double dealing, but he did not feel sure. " I 
was riding," he says in his Memoirs, "when it 
occurred to me to pass by the house of Prince 
Talleyrand. I saw the carriage of the Archbishop of 
Mechlin at his door. I fancied that they were in 
conference. Being anxious to make sure, instead of 
riding into the courtyard, I alighted in the street, 
and entered swiftly on foot. The janitor knew me 
and did not dare to stop me. I hastily ascended the 
staircase and reached M. de Talleyrand's private 
room without meeting any one ; he was alone with 
the Archbishop. My sudden entrance startled them 
as much as if I had come in through the window. 
The conversation, which had been animated, stopped 
short; they were both struck dumb. The face of 
the Archbishop especially expressed great agitation. 



THE MARCH TO THE EAST. 95 

Their confusion suggested to me the subject of their 
talk, and I coukl not keep from saying : ' This time 
you won't deny it ; I have caught you conspiring.' 
I had guessed right. They began to Li-ugh and tried 
to make some reply ; but it was in vain that I asked 
them to resume their conversation : they could not. 
I withdrew, convinced that they were weaving some 
plot, but what it was I did not know." 

In the Memorial of Saint Helena we read : " When 
about to leave the Tuileries, Napoleon, who already 
expected treason, determined to seize the man who 
in fact turned out to be the soul of the conspiracy 
that overthrew him. He was only prevented by the 
assurances, and we might almost say the almost 
personal guarantee, of some of the ministers, who 
proved to him that the one suspected was the very 
man whom the Bourbons most feared." These, min- 
isters were mistaken. As Thiers has said : •'' Some 
insinuations of persons in relation with the Bourbons 
had informed M. de Talleyrand, what in fact he 
already knew, that the services of a married bishop 
would be very well received by the most pious prinCes, 
for there is nothing which is not forgotten in the face 
of services not rendered, but to be rendered. Parties 
have memories only for what they please ; according 
to their necessities, they forget everything or remem- 
ber everything." There is much truth in this last 
statement of the historian. 

When the treason was once organized, secret emis- 
saries were despatched to the enemy's camp. " You 



96 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

have the game in your hands, and yet hold back ; be 
bold ! " They added : " Paris detests its tyrant, and 
only your presence is needed for proclamation to be 
made of his deposition and for the Bourbons to be 
summoned." Still the Allies hesitated, when, in the 
night of March 23, Emperor Alexander and Prince 
Schwarzenberg, who were staying at the castle of 
Dampierre, received information of two letters that 
had been intercepted, one from Marie Louise, the 
other from the Duke of Rovigo, both addressed to 
Napoleon. These two letters proved the existence in 
Paris of a party in league with the foreigners. When 
he had read these letters, the Czar decided that the 
march on Paris should begin at sunrise the next 
morning. He left Dampierre early the next day, the 
24th, and met the King of Prussia and Bliicher at 
Sompuis. The allied armies then started, the army 
of Silesia on the right, that of Bohemia on the left, 
for F^re-Champenoise, moving towards the capital 
between the Marne and the Seine. The Emperor of 
Russia and the King of Prussia marched with their 
troops. As for the Emperor of Austria, who was 
less eager than his allies, he was then at Bar-sur-Aube, 
and he was advised not to join the invading column, 
lest he should fall into the hands of his son-in-law ; 
and he was persuaded to return to Dijon, that he 
might be spared the dethronement of his own 
daughter. 

Meanwhile, Napoleon was continuing his march 
eastward. March 21, he had spent the night at 



THE MARCH TO THE EAST. 97 

Sompuis ; the 22d, he crossed the Marne at the ford 
of Frignicourt; the 23d, he slept at Saint Dizier, where 
he was met by the Duke of Vicenza returning from 
the Chatillon Congress. '' You did well to return," 
the Emperor said to him ; " f or I will tell you frankly, 
if you had accepted the ultimatum of the Allies, I 
should have disavowed you. . . . This time it shall 
not be said that I am fighting for my ambition, for it 
would be easy to save my throne; but my throne, 
with France humiliated, is not what I want. . . . 
You are going to see some great things. I am going 
to march on the fortified towns, and assemble thirty 
or forty thousand men in a few days. Evidently the 
enemy are following me. There is no other explan- 
ation of the mass of cavalry surrounding us. My 
sudden appearance on their rear has brought Schwarz- 
enberg back, and he will not dare to move on Paris 
while I am threatening his communications. Soon I 
shall have a hundred thousand men ; then I shall fall 
on whichever is nearer, Bliicher or Schwarzenberg. 
I shall crush him, and the peasants of Burgundy will 
finish him. The Coalition is nearer its own ruin than 
mine ; and if I triumph, we shall tear up those abom- 
inable treaties. If I am mistaken, well, we shall die ; 
we shall do what so many of our old companions in 
arms do every day ; but we shall at least die with our 
honor untainted." 

Napoleon was full of enthusiasm, and had genuine 
confidence in the success of the bold plan he had 
formed. His generals, however, did not have the 



98 THE INVASION OF ISI4. 

same faith. In the next room they were muttermg : 
"Where are we going? What will become of us? 
If he falls, shall we fall with him? " As soon as the 
Emperor appeared, every one ke^^t a respectful silence. 
" Yet," says General de S%ur, " he felt very clearly 
that the bravest were astonished, that human strength 
could do no more, that everything was exhausted. 
But his grandeur held itself aloof from these mur- 
murs ; he was still beyond their reach ; such was the 
habit of command on his side, of obedience on theirs. 
Yet they respected his misfortune, and respected 
themselves in his presence ; and whatever their 
despondency behind his back, they concealed it from 
him." 

March 24, Napoleon marched to Joinville ; the 
25th, he pushed on his light cavalry to Chaumont. 
He fancied that he was pursued by the whole of 
Schwarzenberg's army, while in fact he had behind 
him only a few thousand of Witzingerode's cavalry ; 
and he imagined Paris relieved at the very moment 
it was about to fall. 

Mortier and Marmont had been attacked on the 
Aisne, the moment the Emperor left them, and had 
been forced to evacuate Rheims, in order to cover the 
capital. But at Fere-Champenoise, March 25, they 
fell in with the whole army of Bohemia, and fought 
most bravely, though outnumbered ten to one. They 
were only saved from annihilation by Pacthod's divi- 
sion, which had been marching for four days to join 
them. This division, which liad been made immortal 



THE MARCH TO THE EAST. 99 



by its courage, consisted entirely of National Guards. 
Its general exclaimed : '' There is no surrender in the 
open field. Military law, and, above all, honor, for- 
bids it. Besides, when the country is lost, who 
wishes to survive it ? Let us then swear to die for 
it ! " and they all swore it. 

March 27, Napoleon heard of the disaster of F^re- 
Champenoise by a bulletin found on a prisoner. 
When he heard that the troops of Marmont and 
Mortier were routed, and that the Allies were mov- 
ing on Paris, flushed with victory, he was most sorely 
perplexed. Macdonald urged him to pursue his 
movement eastward without concerning himself 
about Paris. " Let me consider," said the Emperor. 
" I must be alone." His thoughts were most bitter. 
He, the most audacious of men, for the first time in 
his life was outdone in audacity by his adversaries. 
What was to become of Paris ? Was not a revolu- 
tion there imminent ? And if Louis XVIII. were pro- 
claimed in the capital, what would he. Napoleon, be 
in the departments of the east? The commander of 
an Imperial Vendue, a sort of adventurer or leader of 
a band. The whole night of the 27th he spent at 
Saint Dizier, poring over his maps, eagerly measur- 
ing the distances. Which was the shortest road to 
Paris ? That of Cezanne to Coulommiers. But that 
road led to the Marne, and all the passages were 
guarded by the enemy. It would be better to take 
the road through Troyes, although it was far from 
straight. Napoleon hesitated no longer; Paris be- 



100 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

came his sole objective point. But would he arrive 
in time ? Would he not find the capital in posses- 
sion of the Royalists and the Allies ? With feverish 
impatience the Emperor gave the preparatory orders, 
and March 28, he set his troops in motion, starting 
from Saint Dizier ; he spent that night at Doulevent. 
There he received a messenger from M. de Lavalette, 
the bearer of a letter running thus ; '' The friends 
of the foreigners, encouraged by what is going on at 
Bordeaux, are raising their heads ; they are aided 
by secret plots. The presence of Napoleon is neces- 
sary if he wishes to prevent the surrender of the capi- 
tal to the enemy. Not a moment must be lost." 

March 29, the Emperor was again on horseback 
before day. Tow^ards two in the afternoon he 
reached at the bridge of Doulancourt, the highroad 
of Troyes, whence he could advance either on Paris 
or on Lorraine. He hesitated for a moment. The 
wisest of liis officers wanted to continue the march 
to the east, and their despair was great when they 
saw Napoleon, abandoning this plan, cross the Aube 
and take the road to Troyes, commanding his troops 
to follow him toward Paris, at double quick, night 
and day. 

We read in the Memorial of Saint IIele7ia : " The 
Emperor much regretted that at Saint Dizier and at 
Doulevent he had yielded to the many arguments that 
urged him against his will to return to Paris. ' I lacked 
firmness,' he said. ' I ought steadily to have carried 
out my plan of advancing to the Rhine, strengthen- 



THE MARCH TO THE EAST. 101 

ing myself with all my garrisons, putting myself at 
the head of the insurgent populace : I should have 
had an immense army. Murat would have returned 
to me at once ; he and the Viceroy would have given 
me Vienna if the Allies had dared to take Paris. But 
no ; the enemy would have shuddered at the dangers 
they were in, and the Allied sovereigns would have 
regarded as a favor the chance to retreat.' " 

The die was cast, and Napoleon had chosen the 
other course. He commanded General Dejean to 
leave at full speed to announce to the Parisians his 
return. The troops marched with wonderful celer- 
ity. The Imperial Guard and the baggage-train 
made fifteen leagues in a single day. March 29, 
Napoleon slept at Troyes. He was off again the 
morning of the 30th, and advanced as far as Vil- 
leneuve-l'Archeveque, where he stopped for a few 
moments alone with Ney in a little cabin. '' Well, 
Ney," he said, " what do you think of this hut and 
of our situation? Don't you think we should be 
lucky if we could be sure of such a retreat for our 
old age ? " From Villeneuve-l' Archeveque, the march 
lost its military aspect. Being sure of the safety of 
the road, he went on ahead of his troops, jumped into 
a wagon with Caulaincourt and Berthier, and drove 
swiftly through Moret and Fontainebleau, urging the 
postilions to full speed. At last, at six in the even- 
ing, he reached Fromenteau, but five leagues distant 
from his capital. He was too late ! 

What had happened in Paris ? 



VIII. 

PARIS AT THE END OF MARCH. 

IN the last days of March Paris was filled with the 
keenest anxiety. No news was received from 
the Emperor ; it was uncertain whether the enemy 
was retreating or marching on the capital. The 
Ministers had no more information than the public, 
and gloomy forebodings announced the approaching 
disasters. 

One evening the Empress, as was her habit, received 
a few persons at the Tuileries. Calm and self-con- 
trolled, she gave no sign of her distress. She had 
invited the Duke of Rovigo, but when she had sat 
down at the card-table she would not let the cards 
be taken from their case : she n o longer cared to play. 
A few minutes later she took the Duke aside and 
asked him if he had received any letters from the 
Emperor. He answered, "No." "Well," she then 
said, " I will give you news about him ; I heard from 
him this morning." And when Savary expressed sur- 
prise, saying that no courier had arrived, the Regent 
added : " That is true ; no courier has arrived ; and 
I shall surprise you still more when I tell you that 
102 



PABIS AT THE END OF MARCH. 103 

Marshal Bliicher has sent me a letter from the 
Emperor, which, he says, was found with many others 
on a courier who was captured by the enemy. To 
tell you the truth, I am very anxious, for I have 
thought of what may result from this accident. The 
Emperor, ever since his departure, has written to 
me in cipher; all these letters have reached me 
safely; this one, not in cipher, is the only one in 
which he speaks to me about his plan, and that 
must be the one to fall into the enemy's hands. 
There is a fatality about that which makes me very 
sad." 

In this letter Napoleon announced his march to 
the east, tried to reassure her about the consequences 
of this movement, and bade her not to be surprised 
if she should not hear from him for some days. When 
Marshal Bliicher had captured the bearer of this let- 
ter, he forwarded the letter to the outposts under a 
flag of truce, that it might reach the Empress after 
it had been read by him. It ended with these words : 
'' This step saves me or ruins me." 

Marie Louise perfectly understood the extreme 
gravity of the situation. Without a single adviser 
capable of reassuring her by his energy, she felt that 
everything about her was crumbling. She had no 
confidence in her brothers-in-law ; she had seen Napo- 
leon quarrel with them all. She knew how hard he 
had found it to become reconciled with Joseph, whom 
she suspected of jealousy of her and of secret in- 
trigue against the Emperor. She knew, also, how 



104 THE INVASION OF 18 14. 

annoyed the Emperor had been when, January 1, 
1814, Louis had come to Paris without permission 
and had stayed with his mother. Then an order had 
been conveyed to him to move to a distance of forty 
leagues from the capital, but he refused to obey. " No 
one," he said, " has any right to prevent my staying 
at my own house." It was not till January 10, that, 
thanks to the Empress's intervention, he was able to 
get admission to the Emperor. The interview was a 
cold one ; the two brothers did not kiss. " I should 
prefer that Holland return to the power of the house 
of Orange rather than to that of my brother." The 
pacific counsels and wise warnings that he received 
from Louis during the campaign irritated him ex- 
tremely. He never pardoned him for a letter, written 
March 16, which was simply prophetic, and in which 
the former King of Holland wrote thus : " If Your 
Majesty does not sign peace, you may be sure that 
your government will not last more than three weeks. 
It needs only a little coolness and common sense to 
judge the state of affairs." 

As for Jerome, Napoleon, before leaving for the 
field, had refused to receive him at the Tuileries, and, 
February 4, 1814, the Empress had been forced to 
write to Joseph : — 

" My dear Brother : I have this moment received 
a letter from the Emperor on the 2d, in which, in 
answer to mine, he forbids my receiving on any pre- 
text the King and Queen of Westphalia, in public or 
incognito. Hence I beg of you, my dear brother, to 



PA BIS uiT THE END OF MARCH. 105 

express to them all the regret I feel at not being 
able to see them to-morrow, and to believe in the 
sincere friendship with which I am, my dear brother, 
your affectionate sister." 

February 21, Napoleon was somewhat better dis- 
posed towards Jerome. That day he wrote from 
Nogent-sur-Seine to Joseph : — 

" My Brother : These are my wishes about the 
King of Westphalia: I authorize him to wear the 
coat of a grenadier of my guard, the permission I 
grant to all the French Princes : you will inform 
King Louis of this. It is absurd for him to wear a 
Dutch uniform. King Jerome will at once get rid of 
his Westphalian household. . . . Immediately after- 
wards, the King and Queen will be presented to the 
Empress, and I authorize the King to occupy the 
house of Cardinal Fesch, since it appears to belong to 
him, and to establish his household there. The King 
and Queen will continue to bear the title of King 
and Queen of Westphalia, but they will have no 
Westphalian in their suite. When that is done, the 
King will come to my headquarters, when I intend 
to send him to Lyons, to take command of that city, 
of the department and the army, if he Avill promise to 
be always at the outposts, and to have no royal reti- 
nue, no extravagance, not more than fifteen horses, 
to bivouac with his soldiers, and not to let a gun be 
fired without being at the front." This plan fell 
through. Like Joseph and Louis, Jerome stayed in 
Paris until after the Empress had left. Since they 



106 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 

inspired no confidence in the Emperor, how could 
they in her ? 

Meanwhile, alarm was spreading everywhere, and 
Paris was in the wildest confusion. With the excep- 
tion of a few traitors who actually rejoiced in the 
public misfortunes, the populace was panic-stricken. 
They were afraid that the city would be sacked, and 
had but little doubt that it would be burned, like 
Moscow. When news came that the Emperor Alex- 
ander and the King of Prussia had slept at Coulom- 
miers, only fourteen leagues from Paris, and the 
country people began to drive their herds before 
them and to throng into the city with such of their 
belongings as they could load on their carts, the 
terror was complete. 

Idle and discontented patriots wandered through 
the suburbs and along the boulevards, demanding 
arms and denouncing the indifference of the govern- 
ment. The disseminators of bad news thronged the 
cafes, the theatres, — for the theatres, oddly enough, 
were not closed, — the streets, and public places, 
spreading abroad the wildest rumors. There was no 
one to stop them ; there was no police, no govern- 
ment. National resistance, a great popular uprising, 
was something impossible. On the battle-field of 
Arcis-sur-Aube Napoleon had said to General Sebas- 
tian!, who asked him why he did not summon the 
nation to rise : " That's a wild dream based on mem- 
ories of Spain and the French Revolution. It is use- 
less to call upon a nation in which the Revolution 



PAIilS AT THE END OF MARCH. 107 

has destroyed the priests and the nobles, and in which 
I have myself destroyed the Revolution ! " 

Napoleon was right. To defend Paris against two 
hundred thousand Allies, to protect the city with 
barricades, to have the tocsin sounded, to determine 
to conquer or die, required patriotism and religious 
sentiment. It demanded monks like those of Sara- 
gossa, to set the Holy Sacrament before the attacking 
hordes, and a band of fanatics, like the men who 
burned Moscow, who chose rather to see the city in 
flames than in the hands of foreigners. Paris was 
moved by a very different feeling, — a yearning for 
safety. A few heroes swore that they would die be- 
fore they saw the great capital polluted by the pres- 
ence of the foreigners; but most of the inhabitants 
said that Paris could not, should not, and would not 
be sacrificed merely to prolong the tottering power of 
the Emperor. The National Guard did not represent 
the people; it was drawn solely from the middle 
classes, and even for its scanty members — only about 
twelve thousand men — there were not more than three 
thousand muskets. Either through improvidence, or 
the desire not to alarm the populace, no serious prep- 
arations for defence had been made. There were mag- 
nificent fortifications, rich arsenals, abundant troops at 
Dantzic, Hamburg, Flushing, Palma Nuova, Venice, 
Alessandria — but in Paris, actually nothing! — no 
armament, no muskets, no cannon, no fortifications, 
with the exception of a few wretched palisades in the 
suburbs. To oppose the two hundred thousand well- 



108 THE INVASION OF 18 14. 

trained and fully-equipped invaders there were only 
about twenty-five thousand men, including the troops 
of Marshals Marmont and Mortier, who had just 
reached Charenton, those of General Compans, a few 
battalions hastily formed from the guards of the 
public buildings, and finally the twelve thousand 
National Guardsmen, most of whom were armed only 
with pikes. 

Meanwhile the enemy was advancing ; the cannon 
could heard in the neighborhood of the capital. What 
was Marie Louise to do? Should she leave Paris 
or remain? This question was to be discussed at 
a council held at the Tuileries in the evening of 
March 28. 

It was one of the most pathetic deliberations re- 
corded in history; and although it resulted in the 
fall of the Imperial power, the Emperor was unable 
to blame his councillors, for their determination was 
in strict accordance with his orders. The Empress 
Regent presided over the meeting, at which were 
present King Joseph; Talleyrand, Prince of Bene- 
vento. Vice Grand Elector ; Cambacer^s, Prince of 
Parma, Archchancellor ; Lebrun, Duke of Piacenza, 
Archtreasurer ; M. de Mol^, Chief of Justice ; M. de 
Montalivet, Minister of the Interior ; Clarke, Duke 
of Feltre, Minister of War ; M. Bigot de Pr^ameneu, 
Minister of Worship ; M. de Sussy, Minister of Com- 
merce ; Champagny, Duke of Cadore, Secretary of 
State.: Gaudin, Duke of Gaeta, Minister of Fi- 
nance; M. Mollien, Minister of the Public Treasury ; 



PARIS AT THE END OF MARCH. 109 

M. Daru, Minister of the Administration of War; 
Savary, Duke of Rovigo, Minister of Police ; Duke 
Decrds, Minister of the Navy; M. de Lac^x^ede, 
President of the Senate ; Regnier, Duke of Massa, 
President of the Legislative Body; Messrs. Reg- 
nault de Saint Jean d'Ang^ly, Boulay (of Meurthe), 
Merlin (of Douai), Muraire, Cessac, and Fermont, 
Ministers of State. The meeting began at half-past 
eight P.M. 

The Minister of War, Clarke, Duke of Feltre, was 
the first to speak. "Listening to the Minister of 
War," says the Duke of Rovigo, " it was hard to 
escape from evil forebodings ; his speech was a com- 
bination of loyalty, prudence, adulation, and indepen- 
dence, out of which nothing could be made. He 
seemed to wish to say : ' I have given you full warn- 
ing ; I wash my hands of everything else.' " Clarke 
spoke at length of the dangers threatening the cap- 
ital, on the petty number of its defenders, of the 
impossibility of the Emperor's arriving in time to 
save it ; and after accompanying this dreary statement 
with numerous protestations, of untiring devotion, 
he urged the immediate departure of the Empress 
and of the King of Rome, who, in his opinion, should 
be sent at once to the Loire, out of reach of the 
enemy. 

M. Boulay opposed the views of the Minister of 
War, with great energy. He said that if the capital 
was left to the influence of the foreigners and the 
intrigues of the Royalists, all was lost; that flight 



110 THE INVASION OF I8I4. 

would be to set an example for surrender, and would 
discourage and depress brave men who had sworn to 
Napoleon to defend his wife and his son ; that Paris, 
without the Empress, would be like a corpse ; and 
that her departure would be in fact a dissolution of 
the Regency, and the abdication of the Empire. He 
added that the Empress, so far from following this 
pusillanimous advice, should take her son in her arms 
and show herself to the people, pass through the 
streets, boulevard, and suburbs, and go to the H6tel 
de Ville, to give an example of heroic resolution. 
The populace would applaud her, and in this solemn 
moment would repeat what the Hungarians had cried 
out to her ancestress, Maria Theresa ; " Moriamur pro 
rege nostro ! " 

These eloquent words greatly moved the Council. 
The Dukes of Rovigo, of Massa, of Cadore, were 
especially conspicuous for the ardor with which they 
expressed their approval. King Joseph and Cam- 
bac^r^s said not a word. The Empress, anxious and 
silent, closely scanned her councillors. 

Then Prince Talleyrand spoke. Every one suspected 
his fidelity to the Empire, and there was general 
curiosity to know what this able but dangerous man 
would advise. He was grave and calm, and spoke 
with that imposing authority, that dignified self-pos- 
session, that slowness which never forsook him, and 
was astute enough to tell the truth, while preparing 
for any contingency. He said plainly that the depart- 
ure of Marie Louise would throw Paris into the hands 



PAEU^i AT THE END OF 21 ARCH. Ill 

of the Royalists and would leave the field open for 
the Coalition to establish a change of dynasty. 

The Duke of Rovigo expressed himself in similar 
terms. "In support of my opinion," he says in his 
Memoirs, " I spoke of the excellent spirit of that por- 
tion of the populace which is the least taken into 
account though it is untiring in its sacrifices." Then 
there were a few moments of silence. The Arch- 
chancellor called for a vote, and it was found that 
there was almost unanimous opposition to the depart- 
ure of the Empress and of the King of Rome. 

However, fuller consideration having been thought 
advisable, the Duke of Feltre arose, and after a long 
introduction in which he enumerated some instances 
from history of fidelity and devotion to sovereigns 
driven from their capital by war, he went on to say 
that it was a mistake to regard Paris as the only 
centre of the Imperial power; that the Emperor's 
power followed him wherever he might be; that so 
long as a village was left in which he or his son was 
recognized, there all Frenchmen should rally, for that 
was the real capital. It was the duty of the Empress 
and of the King of Rome to go to the uninvaded 
provinces, there to summon all good men to their 
banner, and with them to die in defence of the coun- 
try and the throne. For his part, he could not under- 
stand how men who had long professed devotion to 
the Emperor could advise that his son should be 
exposed to the chance of falling into the enemy's 
hands. This was the only bond that united them to 



112 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 

Austria, and that they would be helpless if they 
should follow the perfidious counsel of surrendering 
Hector's son to the Greeks. 

" The Duke of Feltre," says the Duke of Rovigo, 
" was much excited ; he evidently chose his words to 
express before the Empress his devotion to the Em- 
peror, and he showed no fear of opposing the whole 
Council. Moreover, his speech was answered very 
fully by different councillors, and when the vote was 
taken again, it was found that no man had changed 
his opinion that the Empress would do better to stay 
in Paris." 

King Joseph alone had not voted, and up to that 
moment he kept silence. Then he took the floor and 
read two letters from Napoleon. One, written after 
the battle of Rothi^re, was dated Nogent, Februaiy 8, 
1814 ; the other, written after the battles of Craonne 
and Laon, was dated Rheims, March 16. We have 
already quoted the first, which ended thus ; " With 
the Empress and the King of Rome in Vienna, or in 
the enemy's hands, you and all who tried to defend 
themselves would be rebels. For my part I had 
rather my son should have his throat cut than that I 
should see him brought up in Vienna as an Austrian 
prince, and I have a high enough opinion of the 
Empress to be sure that she shares this opinion so far 
as a woman and a mother can. I have never seen 
Andromaque played without pitying the fate of 
Astyanax who survives his family, and without 
thinking it would have been better for him not to 



PARIS AT THE END OF MARCH. 118 

survive his father. You do not know the French peo- 
ple. The results of what would happen in those 
great events lie beyond calculation." 

The reading of this first letter produced a deep 
impression of discouragement and surprise. The sec- 
ond letter, that of March 16, was even more explicit. 
Like the other, it was from Napoleon to Joseph; 
it ran as follows : " In conformity with the oral in- 
structions that I gave you, and with the tendency of 
all my letters, you must not, in any case, let the Em- 
press and the King of Rome fall into the enemy's 
hands. I am about to move in such a way that you 
may possibly be several days without news of me. If 
the enemy should advance on Paris in such force that 
resistance would be impossible, despatch towards the 
Loire the Regent, my son, the high dignitaries, the 
Ministers, the officers of the Senate, the Presidents of 
the Council of State, the high officers of the Crown, 
the Baron de la Bouillerie, and the Treasury. Do 
not abandon my son, and remember that I had rather 
know him in the Seine than in the hands of the ene- 
mies of France; the fate of Astyanax, a prisoner 
among the Greeks, has always seemed to me the 
most melancholy in all history." 

When Joseph had finished reading this second let- 
ter, the members of the Council gazed at one another 
in stupefaction. Why had they been summoned if 
the Emperor's orders were formal? Why ask their 
opinion if it had been determined already not to follow 
it? Was this only one of the mockeries of debate 



114 THE INVASION OF ISI4. 

of the pretended deliberations of wliicli the Imperial 
Government had given so many examples ? In that 
case it was easy to understand the Duke of Feltre, 
who doubtless was already familiar with the two let- 
ters, when he so strongly urged the departure of 
Marie Louise and her son. Nevertheless, the mem- 
bers of the Council who were opposed to their leaving 
still tried to prevent it. M. de Talleyrand repeated 
what he had already said. Their efforts were vain. 
King Joseph declared that it was impossible with- 
out being guilty of rebellion by disobedience of his 
brother's precise orders. A third and last vote was 
taken, and the departure was determined; the Em- 
press, who wished to remain, announced that she and 
her son could leave at eight the next morning for 
Rambouillet. 

This decision once taken, each minister asked for 
definite instructions. It was decided that King 
Joseph should remain in the capital, to superintend 
the defence, and that he should not leave till it be- 
came impossible to save the city from the enemy; that 
Archchancellor Cambacer^s and the President of the 
Senate should accompany the Empress and the King 
of Rome ; that the other dignitaries, with the Minis- 
ters, should remain in Paris until King Joseph should 
order them to leave, and that this order, to prevent 
all mistake, should come to them through the Chief 
Justice, M. de Mole ; and finally, that the President 
of the Senate should write to each member of that 
body, to avoid obeying any illegal summons. Then 



PARIS AT THE END OF MARCH. 



at two o'clock ill the morning tlie meeting broke 
up. 

Before leaving the Tuileries, the members of the 
Council, of whom Marie Louise had just taken leave, 
stopped in a room next to the one where they had 
been in session, and some of them came up to Savaiy 
and whispered in his ear : '' If I were the Minister of 
Police, like you, Paris would be in insurrection to- 
morrow, and the Empress would not leave." The 
Duke of Rovigo replied : " Which one of you would 
consent to take the responsibility for what might be 
the result of such a course, especially when you have 
just decided that the Emperor's orders must be 
obeyed ? You advise me to take on myself what you 
have thought you could not do. But do I know the 
Emperor's plans ? Am I even sure that this move- 
ment would not thwart them? And if I failed, 
what good would come from the murders, the pillage, 
and all the disorders that would follow an appeal to 
the multitude?" 

The memory of the Revolution was still fresh, and 
doubtless Savary had in mind the Jacobins, — the 
men armed with pikes, — the September massacres, 
when he wrote : " Is it sure, is it even likely, that 
the monarch who refused to cover his defeat by 
burning Leipsic would care to reign at the price of 
the misfortunes which such a plan would entail upon 
the capital ? How could I reply to his reproaches ? 
What could I say in answer to the reproaches of a 
hundred thousand families, one calling for its head. 



116 THE INVASION OF I8I4. 

the other for its home, its fortune, all lost through 
me? There would be too many victims, too many 
tears : I cannot undertake to throw the whole pop- 
ulation of Paris into an abyss. Besides, even if I 
were strong enough, the spirit of my instructions for- 
bids. So far from wishing me to compromise the 
populace, the Emperor orders me to leave Paris if 
the Allies enter. I can easily prevent the Empress's 
departure ; but only a madman would imagine that 
he could control the results of this violent action. 
In my zeal to serve the Emperor I may destroy the 
few chances left him, and transfer what hopes he has 
to the profit of a party. It might be thought of, if I 
had no orders ; but everything has been provided for, 
and I have only to obey the orders I have received. 
Like every one else, I regret the decision just taken ; 
but I don't wish to be responsible alone for what you 
all together have not dared to do." 

The members of the Council, seeing that all was 
over, that the Empire was lost, went down the grand 
staircase of the Tuileries in the profoundest gloom. 
At this last moment M. de Talleyrand went up to 
Savary, and said to him, with mingled irony and mel- 
ancholy, something like this : " Well, so this is the end 
of it all, don't you think ? Upon my word, we have 
lost the game with all the cards in our hands. Just 
see what comes from the stupidity of a few ignorant 
men who use their influence day in, day out. Really, 
the Emperor is to be pitied ; yet no one will pity him, 
because his obstinacy in retaining his advisers has no 



PARIS AT THE END OF MARCH. 117 

reasonable ground ; it is only a weakness which is 
incomprehensible in a man like him. Just consider 
what a fall it is ! To be known as the hero of such 
adventures instead of being the hero of the age ! I 
groan to think of it. What are we to do now? 
There is no need for every one to be crushed under 
the ruins of this edifice. Well, we shall see what 
will happen. Instead of denouncing me, the Emperor 
would have done better to judge those who inspired 
those prejudices; he would have seen that such 
friends are more dangerous than enemies. What 
would he say of any one else who had got into this 
trouble ? " 

Most of the members of the Council had left the 
palace; King Joseph, the Archchancellor, and the 
Minister of War still lingered for a moment. They 
accompanied the Empress to her private rooms and said 
a few words to her about the probable melancholy 
consequences of her leaving Paris. Baron de Mene- 
val, who was present, records that they ventured to 
say that the Regent alone could determine just what 
course was to be followed in this serious state of 
affairs. " You are my lawful councillors," answered 
Marie Louise ; " I shall not take it upon myself to 
issue an order opposed to that of the Emperor, and 
to the determination of the Privy Council, without 
receiving your opinion in due form and signed." 
They refused to take upon themselves such a respon- 
sibility. M. de Meneval says in his Memoirs: "Now 
when we can coolly judge the past, can we blame 



118 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 

their conduct? If honor and fidelity are not mere 
words, were they free to sacrifice the man who had 
trusted to their faith, and to treat with the enemy 
about him, in his absence? If they had consented 
to the Emperor's dethronement (for by disobeying his 
order, they would have committed themselves to 
that), doubtless the Empress would have secured 
her son's gratitude, Joseph would have become the 
lieutenant-general of the kingdom, and the Arch- 
chancellor would have retained his dignities, but at 
what a price ? " 

As she was leaving her councillors, Marie Louise 
uttered these last words: "Even if I were to fall 
into the Seine, as the Emperor said, I should not hesi- 
tate a moment about leaving. A wish which he has 
formally expressed is for me an order." In spite of 
everything, faint hopes still lingered. Possibly, it 
was thought, the danger was not so great as it seemed. 
Perhaps the time for obeying Napoleon's commands 
had not yet come. Before taking their leave of the 
Empress, King Joseph and the Minister of War told 
her that at daybreak the next morning they would 
both make a military examination outside of Paris, 
and would send her a last word as to whether she 
was to go or to stay. 



IX. 

THE KEGENT's flight. 

THE night of March 28 was one of gloom; all 
sleep in Paris was broken by anxiety and alarm. 
Belated passers crossing the courtyard of the Carrou- 
sel saw in the windows of the Tuileries moving lights, 
which betrayed the preparation for departure. These 
preparations were made with eager haste. The bul- 
lion in the Treasury and the most precious objects 
were packed on wagons which were to. follow those 
of the Empress. The morning breeze extinguished 
the dying lights, when at dawn the early risers 
noticed with sad surprise the crowd of horses, car- 
riages, and servants. The ladies of Marie Louise 
wandered distractedly from one room to another. 
Some old retainers were in tears. 

At eight everything was ready for the departure. 
The travelling-carriages drew up before the Pavilion 
of Flora, and the rumor quickly spread abroad that 
the Empress was about to leave. A crowd gathered, 
and the Place of the Carrousel was soon filled with 
a multitude of men and women who asked nothing 
better than to cut the harness, send back the carriages, 

119 



120 THE INVASION OF ISU. 

and to see the Regent share with the Parisians the 
last chances of fortune. Yet, as the Duke of Rovigo 
says in his Memoirs, so great was still the respect 
felt for the Empress and for her wishes, that in the 
whole vast throng all eager to retain her, not one 
person ventured to express the wish. Yet every one 
was thinking : " The departure of Marie Louise is 
our ruin. Her presence would have guaranteed us 
against the barbarism of the foreigners. They would 
never think of sacking, or burning, or bombarding a 
city in which were the daughter and the son of the 
Emperor of Austria." 

Yet the departure which had been set for eight in 
the morning did not take place. Marie Louise still 
hoped she would not have to leave. She was waiting 
in her room, dressed for the journey, with her son 
and her ladies, eluding the questions of the little 
King of Rome, who was much disturbed by the un- 
usual bustle. She expected every moment the report 
she was to receive from King Joseph, but it did not 
come. Every sudden noise, a horseman's entrance 
into the courtyard, the opening of a door, set all 
hearts throbbing. King Joseph, or one of his mes- 
sengers, was expected every moment, but no one 
appeared. 

Suddenly the officers of the National Guard, on 
duty at the Tuileries, and a few other officers — for 
etiquette could not control the general emotions — 
burst into the room where was Marie Louise and 
besought her to remain, promising to defend her 



THE REGENT'S FLIGHT, 121 

and her son to their last breath. Their devotion 
and earnestness deeply touched the Empress. She 
felt that they were right in urging her to stay at the 
Tuileries ; she had a foreboding that if she were once 
to leave the palace she would never enter it again. 
Her intelligence and common sense told her that 
this fatal departure was the greatest and most irrepa- 
rable of faults, and that the fall of the dynasty would 
be the immediate result. All that she knew, but how 
could she withstand the Emperor's formal orders, and 
the insistence of the Minister of War, who sent her 
word that there was not a moment to lose. Marie 
Louise thanked the officers of the National Guard, 
but was obliged to decline their patriotic offers. 

Meanwhile, she was waiting most anxiously, fearing 
both to stay and to go, hoping for another order 
from the Emperor, a few words from Joseph that the 
danger was not imminent, and that she might remain 
a few hours. But nothing came, except a message 
from the Minister of War saying that she must leave 
at once; for if there were any delay, she might fall 
into the hands of the Cossacks. 

Eleven struck, and Marie Louise hesitated no 
longer, but descended the stairs. There her son 
resisted, and the child of three clung to the doors 
and banisters, shouting in boyish wrath : " I don't 
want to leave this house ; I don't want to go away ; 
now that papa is away, I'm master here." The 
equerry in waiting, M. de Canisy, took him in his 
arms. He kept struggling and crying: "I don't 



122 THE INVASION OF I8I4. 

want to go to Rambouillet ; it's an ugly castle; 
I want to stay here ! " And M. de Canisy was 
obliged to help Madame de Montesquiou to carry 
him to the carriage in which he was to travel to the 
first halting-place in his long exile. What is stranger 
than this child's instinctive repugnance to this journey 
which was in fact his political death ? 

The fugitive Empress was accompanied by a 
numerous suite, comprising the Duchess of Monte- 
bello, Madame de Castiglione, Madame de Brignole, 
and Madame de Montalivet, Count Claude de Beau- 
harnais, Messrs. de Gontaut and d'Haussonville, 
Prince Aldobrandini, Messrs. d'H^ricy and de Lam- 
bertye, de Cussy and de Bausset, de Guerehy, Drs. 
Corvisart, Bourdier, Lacourner, and Royer. The 
King of Rome was attended by the Countess of 
Montesquieu, his governess, Madame de Boubers, 
and Madame de Mesgrigny, M. de Canisy, and Dr. 
Auvity. The Archchancellor Cambac^res and the 
President of the Senate followed the Empress. About 
twelve hundred men, from the reserves of the grena- 
diers, chasseurs, dragoons, and lancers of the Imperial 
Guard and of the gendarmes formed the escort. They 
got into their carriages, and the procession started 
slowly, going out through the gateway near the Pont 
Royal. 

It seemed like the funeral of the Empire ! Ten 
heavy coaches, adorned with the Imperial arms, led 
the procession, followed by the state coaches, among 
which was the coronation coach ; and then came carts 



THE REGENT'S FLIGHT. 123 

containing rich furniture, records, bullion, silverware, 
and the crown diamonds. The crowd, which had 
been dense in the morning, had scattered under the 
impression that the departure was postponed, and 
only a few curious idlers lingered near the Tuileries 
in gloomy silence. When they saw the mounted 
guards escorting the carriages, they said those men 
would have been of use in defending the capital, so 
meagrely garrisoned. The Regent's departure was 
looked upon as a crime, as a sort of abdication, 
although it could not properly be blamed, because 
it was in obedience to orders. But there was no 
cheering, no expression of sympathy, devotion, or 
sorrow, as the young and unfortunate Empress was 
leaving. 

Issuing from the gateway by the Pont Royal, the 
procession followed the qua}^ of the Tuileries. Marie 
Louise cast a farewell glance at this palace which 
had proved so fatal ; at the Place Louis XV., recall- 
ing the scaffold of her aunt, Marie Antoinette ; at 
the Champs Elys^es, by which she had entered Paris, 
four years less four days before, amid pomp and 
splendor and applause. The Arc de I'Etoile, with 
its inscriptions and boundless flattery ; the speech of 
the Prefect of the Seine, in which he said : '' In order 
to admire you, w^e no longer need to trust to report, 
and already have those words of your immortal hus- 
band come true that, loved first for his sake, you 
would soon be loved for 5^our own " ; the young girls 
dressed in white, offering baskets of flowers; the 



124 THE INVASION OF ISI4. 

dense crowd in the Champs Elys^es ; the coronation 
coach with Marshals of France on horseback by its 
side; the clanging church bells; the rolling drums; the 
salutes; applause; the music, — all those things were 
very remote I One recalls Dante's lines : — 

" Nessun maggior dolore, 
Che ricordarsi del tempo felice 
Nella miseria." 

The procession advanced along the quay of 
Chaillot, leaving the capitol at Passy to go to Ram- 
bouillet. This departure, or rather disastrous flight, 
made a most melancholy impression on the public, 
revealing as it did the full extent of the danger 
threatening Paris ; and the gloom was even greater, 
because hitherto the government bulletins with more 
cunning than truth, had spoken only of victories over 
the armies of the Coalition. A few hours before the 
final crash, the machinery of government was working 
with apparent regularity. Two days before there 
had been a grand review in the courtyard of the 
Tuileries and in the Place of the Carrousel. For four 
hours Joseph had watched the parade of the troops of 
the National Guard, as well as of a numerous force 
of infantry, cavalry, and artillery, and the Empress 
and the King of Rome had been cheered when they 
appeared at a window. In spite of the cloud over- 
hanging the Empire, the theatres remained open. 
March 29, the day of the Empress's flight, Iphigeneia 
in Aulis and Paul and Virgina were given at the 



THE REGENT'S FLIGHT. 125 

opera; Manlius and The Revenge at the Fran^ais; 
the Mefiant and J^ai perdu mon prods at the Od^on ; 
Le Forgeron de Bassora and Richard Coeur-de-Lion 
at the Opdra Comique. The smaller theatres were 
also open. That morning the Parisians had read in 
the 31oniteur this military bulletin : " March 26, His 
Majesty, the Emperor, defeated General Witzenge- 
rode at Saint Dizier, taking two thousand prisoners, 
many cannon and baggage wagons. The enemy was 
pursued some distance." 

From that time forth the Moniteur was silent, say- 
ing nothing about the war, about the Empress's 
flight, or the end of the drama. The number for 
March 30 was absolutely empty; that of the 31st, 
purely literary, containing actually nothing of the 
slightest value, unless we except a " Fragment of a 
Journey in Italy, in prose and verse. Pilgrimage to 
the Festival of the Pardon." April 2, the paper 
opened with a proclamation of the Emperor Alex- 
ander. There is nothing more edifying than the 
number of the Moniteur at a change of rule. In an 
instant the whole tone of the paper is changed. Be- 
tween one day and the next a century seems to have 
passed. The reader wonders what has become of the 
government yesterday so proud, but now vanished 
like a burst bubble. All rulers ought occasionally to 
turn over the bound volumes of the Moniteur Univer- 
sel ; but no one ever profits by the experience of 
another. 



THE BATTLE OF PAEIS. 

AT the same time that Marie Louise was fleeing 
from the capital, the troops commanded by 
Marmont and Mortier were hastily crossing the 
Marne by the bridge of Charenton. In the opposite 
direction there could be descried from the heights 
of Montmartre and Belleville, the vanguard of the 
allied armies, issuing from the woods of Bondy. 
" From the top of the towers of Notre Dame," says 
Chateaubriand, an eyewitness of this great sorrow, 
" could be seen the head of the Russian columns, like 
the first ripple of the sea upon the shore. I felt what 
a Roman must have suffered when from the capital 
he saw the soldiers of Alaric and the old Latin city 
at his feet, when I looked upon the Russian soldiers 
and at the old city of the Gauls below me. For cen- 
turies Paris had not seen the smoke of an enemy's 
camp. . . . Paris was the point from which Bona- 
parte had set forth to wander over the earth ; he was 
returning to it, leaving behind him the enormous 
flame of his profitless conquests." 

March 29, the day of the Empress's flight, at 
126 



THE BATTLE OF PABIS. 127 

three in the afternoon, the leading columns of the 
army of Bohemia, under command of Prince Schwarz- 
enberg, occupied Rosny, as well as the lower part of 
the plateau of Romainville, and halted there under 
the very erroneous impression that they were con- 
fronted by serious obstacles. 

The Russian Emperor and the King of Prussia 
spent the night of March 29 at the castle of Bondy, 
while the troops of Marmont and Mortier, worn out 
by incessant fighting and forced marches, took a few 
hours' rest at Saint Mande and Charenton before the 
fierce fight of the next day. Such was the careless- 
ness of the administration that they had nothing to 
eat, and were obliged to depend on the generosity 
of the inhabitants. Joseph, who as the Emperor's 
lieutenant-general was at the head of affairs after 
the Empress's departure, gave instructions to the two 
Marshals : Marmont was intrusted with the defence 
of the capital to and including the heights of Belle- 
ville and Menilmontant ; Mortier was to defend the 
line extending from the foot of these heights to the 
Seine. 

Only a small part of the circumference of Paris 
is fitted by nature for defence; but this could be 
utilized, especially since the enemy was advancing 
in this direction. From the junction of the Marne 
with the Seine at Charenton, as far as Passy, a chain 
of hills, at times spreading into plateaus, as at 
Romainville, at times separate, as at Montmartre, en- 
closes the city. These heights ought to have been 



128 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

covered with redoubts and artillery ; but in fact the 
preparations were most insignificant, consisting only 
of a few cannon at Montmartre, Saint Chaumont, and 
Charonne, and of a few palisades before the gates. 
No one had thought of raising barricades within the 
city, of arming the populace with shot-guns, if noth- 
ing better was to be had, and of organizing a defence 
from street to street. As Thiers says, " Paris should 
have been defended as General Bourmont, a few days 
before, had defended Nogent; as General Alix had 
defended Sens; as the Spaniards had defended their 
cities ; as the Parisians have themselves too often 
defended Paris against their own governments, with 
the suburbs barricaded ; and the populace behind the 
barricades and the army of the line in reserve to move 
on such points as the enemy might have taken." But 
it must be confessed that, with a few honorable excep- 
tions, the heroic feeling required for the defence of 
the capital existed only among the poorer inhabitants. 
The habit of relying on the strength of the govern- 
ment had weakened all individual initiative. The 
yearning for security deadened national pride. Sud- 
denly, after being for twenty-two years forgotten, the 
Bourbons were remembered, and many were asking 
of what use were the torrents of blood that had been 
shed since their fall. What some called treachery, 
others called fidelity. France, in its sore need for 
harmony in its struggle with the foreigner, was 
divided against itself. Instead of one flag, under 
which it might have found safety, it was to have two. 



THE BATTLE OF PARIS. 129 

The final resistance was to be in the form of a bat- 
tle fought under the walls of Paris, which, as Thiers 
says, was the most foolish plan possible; for, that 
battle lost, everything was lost, — the battle, Paris, 
the government, France. To oppose the two hun- 
dred thousand excellent troops of the Coalition, they 
had only twenty-eight or twenty-nine thousand men, 
among whom were four thousand conscripts, six thou- 
sand National Guards, a few hundred invalides and 
young men of the schools. The Sixth Corps, under 
Marmont, which was to bear the brunt of the attack, 
consisted of but four thousand seven hundred and 
thirty-one men, of whom fourteen hundred and twenty- 
one were mounted. They were mere fragments, shad- 
ows of regiments ready to die in defence of their flag. 
This was the sixty-seventh engagement of the Sixth 
Corps, since January 1, that is to say, in ninety days ; 
and its commander, Marmont, Duke of Ragusa, had 
worn his arm in a sling throughout the whole cam- 
paign, in consequence of a wound he had received in 
Spain ; two fingers of his other hand were wounded, 
so that he had to hold his sword with but three 
fingers. 

March 30, an hour before day, General Marmont 
left Charenton to form in line of battle. At six 
o'clock a Russian cannon announced the last battle 
of the Empire. At that moment the Parisians were 
reading this proclamation of King Joseph, which had 
been posted everywhere : " King Joseph, Lieutenant- 
General of the Emperor, Commander-in-chief of the 



130 THE INVASION OF 1814^ 

National Guard, to the citizens of Paris : A column 
of the enemy is moving on Meaux, advancing by the 
road to Germany, but the Emperor is following it 
closely at the head of a victorious army. The Coun- 
cil of the Regency has provided for the safety of the 
Empress and of the King of Rome. Let us arm in 
defence of our city, of its monuments, of its treasures, 
of our wives, of our children, of all that we hold dear. 
This vast city should become for a brief space a camp, 
and the enemy must suffer humiliation beneath the 
walls which he hopes to overthrow in triumph ! The 
Emperor is marching to our aid ; help him by a brief 
and vigorous resistance, and let us maintain the 
honor of France." At six in the morning Joseph 
and his brother Jerome had ridden to Montmartre 
to watch the movements of the enemy. 

Meanwhile, Marmont's troops had taken position 
on the heights of Belleville and M^nilmontant. The 
enemy in front of Romainville were so hotly attacked 
that they thought that Napoleon must have arrived, 
and they cautiously remained on the defensive. The 
French line was formed with the left at the mill of 
Romainville, holding all the little wood, and with the 
right at the passes on the top of Bagnolet and at the 
mill of Malassise. The battle raged hotly for some 
hours, and until eleven neither side gained any sub- 
stantial advantage ; at that hour, however, the Allies 
attacked in great numbers, and the French line was 
forced. Marmont and his troops were obliged to 
withdraw a little more than half a mile, to the village 



THE BATTLE OF PARIS. 131 

of Belleville, with the right at M^nilmontant, and 
the left by the meadows of Saint Gervais. The roads 
to Paris were blocked with a number of wounded 
Frenchmen. From all sides arose a call for aid, but 
Marmont still held firm. 

It was nearly noon. Joseph, when he found that 
nearly all the armies of the Coalition were engaged, 
and that Napoleon was not coming, thought the case 
hopeless. Montmartre, where he was with his escort, 
was soon to be attacked. With fifty pieces of artil- 
lery it could have been defended ; but as it was, there 
were but seven cannon and a handful of the National 
Guard. 

Fearing to be taken as a hostage and possibly com- 
pelled to bring about the Emperor's dethronement, 
Joseph, in spite of the proclamation he had issued 
that morning, thought of but one thing, — of leav- 
ing the capital and rejoining Marie Louise with a 
shadow of a government. Hence he wrote to Count 
Mole, the Chief Justice : " Count, I think you 
should notify the Ministers that it is proper for them 
to follow in the steps of the Empress. Inform the 
Senators and the Councillors of State, etc." And he 
wrote to the Duke of Piacenza : " Sir : I think it is 
proper for the high dignitaries to withdraAV from 
Paris, in the steps of the Empress, on the road to 
Chartres. Be good enougfli to inform the diofnitaries." 

At quarter-past twelve Joseph sent by his aide. 
General Stroltz, to Marshal Marmont and then to 
Marshal Mortier, permission to treat with the enemy, 



132 THE INVASION OF I8I4, 

in these words: "If the Marshal, the Duke of 
Ragusa, and the Duke of Treviso are no longer able 
to hold their positions, they are authorized to treat 
with Prince Schwarzenberg and the Emperor of Rus- 
sia, who are before them. They will retreat on the 
Loire." When Marmont received this paper, he bade 
one of his aides go to tell Joseph that if the rest of 
the line was in no worse state than where he was, he 
did not think the time had come for capitulation, aaid 
that he still hoped to hold out till night, when per- 
haps there might be a change. Although his valiant 
corps was nearly wiped out by six hours' fighting, 
Marmont would not give up. " He was," says Gen- 
eral de Segur, " one of the oldest companions of the 
great captain ; this was the last battle of the remnants 
of the Grand Army, the last moment of the indepen- 
dence of the capital and of the great nation ; he knew 
that all these grandeurs could not fall like so many 
others, that there was need of other sacrifices, of 
bloodier funeral rites, and he dedicated himself to 
them. He did more ; he made all who were with him 
unite in this heroic devotion ; for not a man left him. 
Yet far on the right another army, under the Prince 
of Wiirtemberg, was turning his position, while 
Bliicher was pressing his left. Already, in spite of 
the desperate defence made by a few hundred con- 
scripts and the pupils of the Veterinary School of 
Alfort, Saint Maur and Charenton had been turned 
and taken ; Percy was captured ; the Wiirtembergers 
had already got by Vincennes, and before the Barriere 



THE BATTLE OF PARIS. 133 

du Tr6ne, the reserve artillery and the pupils of the 
Polytechnic School had been turned back. Twenty- 
one of these pupils had just paid with their blood for 
the fame that their devotion added to the renown of 
this school." 

Mortier was defending himself boldly at Villette, 
and Marmont at Belleville. Six times had the latter's 
troops lost and six times retaken important points in 
their front line, among others, the little towns flanking 
the walls of the Park of Bruyeres. The brave mar- 
shal fought like a lion. His clothes were torn by 
bullets, and his horse had been shot under him. With 
but a handful of brave men, he was fighting desper- 
ately in the main street of Belleville. Never had 
soldiers fought more obstinately, but a prolongation 
of the struggle was impossible. The enemy learned 
from the prisoners by how small a force they were 
opposed, and at length perceived that they could ad- 
vance without danger ; consequently, immense bodies 
began to move forward. From the heights of Belle- 
ville could be seen huge columns of fresh troops 
advancing from all sides — from the Barriere du Tr6ne 
to Villette, while other troops were" crossing the canal 
of the Ourcq and moving on Montmartre. It was 
half-past three o'clock. 

Marmont saw that if Paris was to be saved from 
the horrors of assault, the time for negotiating had 
come. A little before four he sent a first flag of truce, 
preceded by a trumpeter, to propose a suspension of 
hostilities. Colonel de La Bedoyere, who had been 



134 THE INVASION OF I8I4. 

entrusted with this perilous mission, soon returned ; 
he had not been able to advance ; his horse and that 
of the trumpeter had been killed. The combat was 
too hot at that point for a flag of truce to have any 
success. Then Marmont sent an aide-de-camp to 
General Compans, who had a new place for entering 
into communication with the enemy, being in the 
front line, at the foot of the hills of la Villette, at 
the entrance of the highroad, and he ordered him to 
try to open negotiatons. 

At the same moment a horseman appeared among 
the troops of the Duke of Treviso, who was stoutly 
defending la Villette. It was an aide-de-camp of the 
Emperor, General Dejean, who had come to say that 
Napoleon was moving on Paris at full speed, and that 
it was only necessary to hold out two days more when 
he would appear at the head of a considerable force ; 
that hence every effort should be made to prolong the 
defence, and if this could not be done by arms, the 
enemy was to be delayed by discussions, and was to 
be told that the Emperor had written to his father-in- 
law to ask for a reopening of negotiations. When 
Mortier's troops saw General Dejean, they thought 
that Napoleon had arrived. A loud cry of " Long 
live the Emperor ! " arose, and the soldiers fought 
with fresh fury. Meanwhile, the bearer of the first 
flag of truce sent by General Compans, in accordance 
with Marmont's orders, had been killed, and the sec- 
ond severely wounded. The third, M. de Quelen, 
had been able to reach Prince Schwarzenberg, who at 



THE BATTLE OF PARIS. . 135 

once consented to an immediate conference about a 
suspension of hostilities. This conference, in which 
took part Marmont and Mortier, and the representa- 
tives of the Allies, Messrs. de Nesselrode, Orloff, and 
Paar, was held in the second house on the left of the 
gate of la Villette. It was a restaurant called aic 
Petit Jardinet. 

During the conference the battle raged as hotly as 
ever. Life in Paris was not modified by these dread- 
ful events. From the moment the battle began, the 
boulevards had been crowded by men standing and 
sitting, who discussed what was going on. In the 
wealthy quarters patriotism was much less prominent 
than it was in the suburbs, and there were abundant 
indications of the indifference which was to prevail 
the next day. Montmartre, which was defended only 
by General Belliard's cavalry and two hundred and 
forty firemen, had just been carried by one of Bliicher's 
army corps, comxmanded by a Frenchman, General 
Langeron ; and when they had secured this important 
position, the Allies at once turned their guns on the 
capital. At about half-past four shells and cannon- 
balls began to fall in what is now the Quarter of the 
Chaussde d' An tin, and a general bombardment seemed 
imminent. 

Chateaubriand says of their last hour: " The crowd 
hurried to the Jardin des Plantes, which the fortified 
abbey of Saint Victor might have protected; the little 
home of the swans and the banana- trees, to which 
our power had promised eternal peace, was disturbed. 



136 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

From the top of the labyrinth, above the great cedar, 
above the storehouses which Bonaparte had not had 
time to finish, beyond the site of the Bastille and of 
the dungeon of Vincennes (places full of historical 
memories), the multitude watched the combat of 
Belleville. Montmartre was carried, and bullets 
reached the boulevard du Temple. A few companies 
of the National Guard sallied forth and lost three 
hundred men in the fields about the tombs of the 
martyrs. Never did the military spirit of France 
shine in a brighter light in defeat; the last heroes 
were five hundred young men of the Polytechnic 
School, who were directing the artillery in the Vin- 
cennes redoubts. Though surrounded by the enemy, 
they refused to yield : they had to be dragged away 
from their guns. The Russian Grenadiers seized 
them blackened with powder and covered with 
wounds; while they struggled in their arms there 
rose cries of victory and admiration for the young 
French heroes, who were handed, covered with blood, 
to their mothers." 

Alas ! this glorious resistance was at an end. Every- 
thing has its limits, even heroism. Twenty-two years 
of unprecedented triumph ended in this chivalrous 
and mournful way. The death-roll attests the obsti- 
nate rally of the defenders of Paris ; of twenty-four 
thousand killed and wounded, there were six thou- 
sand French soldiers, nine hundred National Guards, 
and more than seventeen thousand of the foreigners. 

At five in the evening^ the conference about the 



THE BATTLE OF PARIS. 137 

suspension of hostilities was drawing to a close. To 
an insulting request to lay clown their arms, the two 
marshals answered by a gesture of indignant scorn ; 
when it was proposed that they leave Paris and take 
the road to Brittany, they answered that they would 
go where they pleased. The sole condition they ac- 
cepted was to evacuate Paris in the night and to sur- 
render the gates in the morning. It was agreed that 
the officers would meet in the evening to settle the 
details of the evacuation, and shortly after five the 
suspension of hostilities was determined. 

Still all was not over. While the discussion was 
going on, the Allies, who were masters of Montmartre, 
advanced as far as the Clichy gate. There they 
found a brave veteran, a man of sixty. Marshal 
Moncey, Duke of Conegliano, Major-General of the 
National Guard of Paris. About him were grouped 
citizen-soldiers as brave and devoted as the Spartans 
of Leonidas at Thermopylae. Old men and young, 
invaUdes, students, were serving the artillery outside 
of the gate. The armistice had just been concluded, 
but the Allies, doubtless ignorant of the fact, attacked 
the little phalanx. The National Guard defended 
themselves like lions. The rue de Clichy was cov- 
ered with barricades. Then the suspension of hos- 
tilities was announced ; but the Russians made what 
seemed an offensive movement, and the National 
Guard reopened their fire, which Langeron and 
Moncey hastened to stop. 

Those who admire this noble end of so many glo- 



138 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

ries will recall the monument raised in commemo- 
ration of this proud memory. On a huge stone 
pedestal stands the bronze statue of Marshal Moncey, 
bareheaded, sword in hand. Above him stands the 
city of Paris, represented by a beautiful woman, 
whose head is adorned by a mural crown ; she holds 
in her hand a standard decorated with an eagle ; at 
her feet a dead National Guardsman lies stretched 
over a cannon with broken wheels. On one side of 
the pedestal is this inscription: "In the reign of 
Napoleon III., in memory of the defence of Paris 
by Marshal Moncey, Major-General of the National 
Guard, March 30, 1814, at the Clichy gate, this 
monument has been erected by the city of Paris in 
1869." On the other side of the pedestal is repro- 
duced in stone the famous picture of Horace Vernet, 
— that impressive, heroic picture, of which the Resto- 
ration was as much afraid as of B Granger's songs. 



XI. 

NAPOLEON AT THE FOUNTAINS OF JUVISY. 

MARCH 30, 1814, at about ten in the evening, 
post-horses galloped into the village of Fro- 
menteaii, five leagues from the capital, near the Foun- 
tains of Juvisy, drawing a modest carriage. In this 
carriage sat a man who, with feverish anxiety, Avas 
counting the minutes, the seconds, and continually 
urging on the postilion. This man w^as Napoleon, 
who was accompanied by Caulaincourt and Berthier. 
He had pushed on ahead of his troops, hoping to 
reach Paris in season. When he stopped to change 
horses at Fromenteau he knew nothing of what had 
taken place that day and the day before, — nothing 
of the flight of his wife and son, nothing of the battle 
of Paris and of the capitulation. All was lost, and 
he was still hoping that all could be saved. He Avas 
expecting news in the most painful anxiety, when 
suddenly, in the dim light, he descried uniforms. 
To his great surprise he saw before him General 
Belliard. "What! you, Belliard?" he exclaimed. 
"What does this mean? You here with your cav- 
alry? Where is the enemy?" — "At the gates of 

139 



140 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

Paris, Sire." — "And the army?" — "It is folio Aving 
me." — " And who are guarding the capital ? " — " The 
National Guard, Sire." — "And my son, my wife, my 
government — where are they?" — "On the Loire." 
" The Loire ! . . . How could they make such a 
decision?" — "But, Sire, it was said to be done by 
your orders." — " And Joseph, Clarke, Marmont, Mor- 
tier, — what has become of them ? What have they 
done?" 

Then General Belliard described everything that 
had happened that day and the day before, — the 
departure of Marie Louise and the King of Rome, 
that of Joseph and the Ministers, the bloody battle 
of Paris, the terrible struggle of la Villette and 
Belleville, the suspension of hostilities determined at 
five o'clock the previous evening, the capitulation, 
the clause of which at that very moment Marmont 
was about drawing up. Then Napoleon understood 
why General Belliard happened to be at the Foun- 
tains of Juvisy. Belliard was in command of the 
cavalry of Mortier's army corps, and had been fight- 
ing bravely all day. After the signing of the 
armistice Marmont and Mortier ordered that the 
troops who were compelled to evacuate the city 
should move towards Fontainebleau. Ever since the 
two marshals had joined forces Marmont had con- 
tinually been in front in advancing on the enemy 
and at the rear in retreating, up to the suppression of 
hostilities. Mortier's corps had set out first on the 
road to Fontainebleau, while Marmont's bivouacked 



NAPOLEON AT THE FOUNTAINS OF JUVISY. 141 

that night in the Champs Elys^es, to start at seven 
the next morning. At last Napoleon grasped the 
full extent of the catastrophe. General Belliard set 
before him the excellent conduct of the troops, the 
really heroic obstinacy with which they had defended 
the hills commanding Paris. He said that even 
Montmartre had been defended, although he had 
only his cavalry, a few firemen, and seven cannon, 
and that the enemy had advanced a column along 
the road of the R^ volte to turn Montmartre, thereby 
exposing itself to being driven into the Seine. " O 
Sire ! " he exclaimed, " if we had only had a reserve 
of ten thousand men, we should have driven the 
Allies into the Seine, have saved Paris, and had a 
noble revenge." "Doubtless, if I had been there, 
but I couldn't be everywhere ! . . . My two hun- 
dred cannon at Vincennes, what was done with 
them? and my brave Parisians, why were they not 
made use of?" — "We don't know. Sire. We were 
alone, and we did our best. The enemy lost at least 
twelve thousand men." "It's what I might have 
expected. Joseph lost me Spain, and is losing me 
France ! . . . But there is no need of complaining ; 
we must make good the harm; there is still time. 
Caulaincourt, my carriage ! " 

The carriage did not come, and Napoleon was 
greatly agitated, pacing up and down with long 
strides, followed by General Belliard. "Well," he 
said, " you hear what I say. I mean to go to Paris." 
" But, Sire, you will not find a French soldier there." 



142 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

! & 

" That makes no difference ; I shall find the National 
Guard there. To-morrow, or next day, my army will 
join me, and I shall set things straight." And in 
even greater agitation the Emperor continued to pace 
up and down. Belliard tried to convince him that 
this was an idle dream ; that an insurmountable diffi- 
culty stood in his way, — the absence of his army. 
The troops who had defended Paris were bound by 
the agreement made the previous evening not to leave 
a single soldier within its gates, so Napoleon would 
be alone. "What difference does that make?" he 
shouted angrily. "I mean to go to Paris, and to 
Paris I go. My carriage ! Bring my carriage ! " 
Belliard respectfully suggested that since he had 
left Paris under the terms of the convention, he 
could not return thither without infringing them. 
Besides, the Emperor would find the enemy at the 
gates of the capital, and they would prevent his 
entering. The Emperor's arrival would be the signal 
of a bombardment. "Let us be off," repeated the 
furious monarch ; " I mean to go to Paris. When I 
am away, everything is muddled." 

Napoleon continued to call for his carriage, and as 
he paced to and fro broke out in lamentations and the 
severest recriminations. Why had not a general levy 
been made in Paris ? Why had they not built forti- 
fications, palisades, earthworks, furnished them with 
artillery, and entrusted them to the National Guard, 
which would have defended them bravely? Mean- 
while the troops of the line might have fought before 



NAPOLEON AT THE FOUNTAINS OF JUVISY. 143 

the city, on the heights, and in the plain. What! 
only a few wretched palisades at the gates ? Only 
seven guns on Montmartre? What had become of 
the artillery? There ought to be provisions for a 
month in Paris, and more than two hundred heavy 
guns for its defence. Belliard told the Emperor that 
he had seen only field-pieces, and these were so ineffi- 
cient that at two o'clock they could only be fired 
seldom lest they should burst. Then Napoleon raised 
his eyes to heaven and denounced his brother. 

Might he not have blamed himself as well? Might 
it not have been said to him, " Why didn't you your- 
self have those defences made, under your own eyes, 
when the invasion began? Why did you refuse to 
admit that the capital might some day be attacked ? 
Why did you leave so few of the National Guard? 
Why didn't you have fifty thousand muskets to dis- 
tribute among the Parisians ? Why did you add to 
the danger instead of diminishing it? You fancied 
Paris impregnable, and now it is taken." 

Troops were seen advancing; not cavalry, but the 
infantiy of Mortier's corps. The Emperor, still 
pacing the road, recognized General Curial, and plied 
him with questions. This officer corroborated all 
that Belliard had said. Marshal Mortier, as well as 
Marmont, was still in Paris, and neither the infantry 
nor the cavalry could return thither. Napoleon 
found himself without a single soldier ; this cavalry 
and this infantry were of no use to him. Convinced 
by the evidence, he stopped at the two fountains near 



144 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 

Juvisy, sat down, and for a few moments sadly and 
silently held his head in his hands. '-'• Where is the 
nearest shelter ? " he then asked. He was told it 
was at the post-station of Fromenteau, where his 
carriage had stopped. He returned to the house and 
went in ; then, by the dim light of a wretched lamp, 
he opened his map and began to study it. He said, 
"If I had my army here, all could be made good. 
Alexander will show himself to the Parisians. He 
is not bad ; he doesn't want to burn Paris. He will 
hold a review to-morrow, and will have half of his 
soldiers on the right bank of the Seine, and the other 
half on the left ; there Avill be some in Paris, some 
outside ; and in this position, if I only had my army, 
I could crush them all." Some one said that the 
army would not arrive for four days. " Four days ! " 
he went on ; " oh ! in two days, and in Paris, how 
much disloyalty ! The Empress herself ! . . . Yes, 
I wanted her to go, for Heaven knows what her inex- 
perience might not have led her to do 1 " Then he 
began to pore over the map again, and in a few 
moments again raised his head, his face afire with 
sudden inspiration, and cried out : " I've got them ! 
I've got them ! God has placed them in my hands. 
But I must have four days. Caulaincourt, you can 
gain me these four days by negotiating. You will 
go to the Emperor Alexander." " Sire," replied 
Caulaincourt, "would it not be well to negotiate 
seriously, to yield to circumstances, if not to men, 
and to accept the Ch^tillon proposals, at least the 



NAPOLEON AT THE FOUNTAINS OF JUVISY. 145 

main ones ? " " No, no ! " answered the Emperor. 
" No further humiliations ! no shameful peace ! This 
concerns the greatness of France, its honor. This 
can only be finally settled by the sword. I only want 
four days. You alone can get them from Alexander 
in face of all the intrigues that will beset me. So 
go at once. As for me, I am going to Fontainebleau 
to wait for you and the army, and to prepare to 
avenge this momentary humiliation of France." 

Caulaincourt started for Paris, carrying the follow- 
ing paper, signed by Napoleon : " We command the 
Duke of Vicenza, our Master of the Horse and Min- 
ister of Foreign Affairs, to visit the allied sovereigns 
and the commander-in-chief of their armies, to recom- 
mend to them our faithful subjects of the capital. 
By these presents we invest him with all power to 
negotiate and conclude peace, promising to ratify 
whatever he may do for the good of our service. In 
case of need, we also invest him with military powers, 
to be the governor and commissioner of this good 
city together with the commander-in-chief of the 
Allies, Accordingly we order ever^^ official to recog- 
nize the Duke of Vicenza in the said position, and to 
aid him in all that he shall do for the benefit of our 
service and of our people." At the same time Napo- 
leon despatched a messenger to the Emperors. Then, 
utterly exhausted, — for he had travelled for sixty 
leagues on horseback and by post, without stopping, — 
he fell asleep in a wretched chair. At about four in 
the morning he was awakened by a bearer of de- 



146 THE INVASION OF I8I4, 

spatches from Paris, who brought him word that 
Marmont had finally concluded the capitulation two 
hours before. This paper was signed by four colonels ; 
Colonel Orloff, an aide-de-camp of the Emperor of 
Russia ; Colonel Paar, Prince Schwarzenberg's aide ; 
Colonel Fabvier, of the staff of the Duke of Ragusa ; 
and Colonel Denys, this marshal's first aide-de-camp. 
It was agreed that the French troops should evacuate 
Paris at seven in the morning, that hostilities should 
not be renewed till two hours later, that is to say, 
March 31, at 9 a.m. ; that the National Guard should 
be maintained, disarmed, or disbanded, as the Allies 
might determine ; that the wounded men or strag- 
glers who remained in Paris after 7 a.m. should be 
prisoners of war ; finally, the city was entrusted to 
the generosity of the Powers. 

Illusions were no longer possible. The Emperor 
perceived that it was useless for him to think of 
leaving for Paris. The Allies, coming down from 
the heights of Vincennes, had forced the bridge of 
Charenton and occupied the plain of Villeneuve Saint 
George; their bivouac fires lit up the hills on the 
right bank, while the other side, on Avhich was Napo- 
leon, was dark. Hence he decided to start at four, in 
his carriage, not for Paris, but for Fontainebleau. 



XII. 

THE REGENCY IN FLIGHT. 

MEANWHILE, what had become of Marie 
Louise? Possessing a mere shadow of gov- 
ernment, she bore more likeness to a fugitive than to 
a sovereign. She was uncertain where she should 
stop, at Blois, at Orleans, or at Tours. Everything 
was dark and vague before her. As we said, she left 
Paris, March 29, at eleven in the morning, and 
reached the castle of Rambouillet the same day ; 
there she passed the night. An eye-witness, the 
Baron de Bausset, who accompanied the Empress as 
her Prefect of the Palace, says in his Memoirs: 
" Certainly nothing was less like a court journey 
than this tumultuous retreat of people and luggage. 
However, when they were once assembled in the 
castle of Rambouillet, every one tried to hide the 
depression which was inspired by the critical state of 
affairs which threatened the ruin of the government 
and of the court. This flight was certainly remark- 
able in many ways. Every one was at his post, in 
full dress, and there was no modification of the usual 
formality. The minutest rules of etiquette were 

147 



148 THE INVASION OF I8I4. 

observed with scrupulous care, as if this could delay 
their overthrow. The last thing talked about was 
the events of the day and. what might happen on the 
morrow. Nothing betrayed the secret thoughts and 
feelings of the company." It seems as if courtiers, 
in adversity as well as in prosperity, regarded it as a 
professional duty to hide the truth from princes. 

"Yet," M. de Bausset goes on, "there was one 
good trait in this side of the manners of the court, 
and that was the care taken to keep from the Em- 
press all knowledge of the desertions of former 
friends, of the bad results of her flight, and of the 
successive blows received by the Imperial power. 
The ranks closed, and thus formed about the Empress 
and her son, a band of persons full of the most 
honorable and most disinterested devotion." How- 
ever disinterested the devotion may appear, it is not 
to be forgotten that, March 29, 1814, the cause of 
Marie Louise and of the King of Rome did not yet 
seem hopeless. Nothing was more uncertain than 
the return of the Bourbons, and many who thought 
it impossible that Napoleon should longer reign, 
regarded the accession of his son, with Marie Louise 
as Regent, as a not merely possible, but very prob- 
able contingency. Possibly this last illusion in- 
spired some of the obsequious zeal of these courtiers 
of the fleeing Empress. 

March 30, she left Rambouillet and spent the night 
at Chartres, without any news of the battle of Paris 
or of the Emperor. King Joseph, who had left the 



THE REGENCY IN FLIGHT. 149 

capital at four in the afternoon, shortly before the 
battle ended, reached Chartres that night, and re- 
ceived the next day a letter which Napoleon had 
written just before leaving Fromenteau. The same 
day at five in the afternoon Joseph wrote to his 
brother : — 

'' Sire : I sent you this morning a letter by a dis- 
guised messenger. This evening I receive Your 
Majesty's letter of this morning. I forward to the 
Empress the one addressed to her. I shall leave 
to-night to join her. She ought to have gone first to 
Tours. In accordance with Your Majesty's com- 
mands, she will go, with the government, to Blois. 
That is also the opinion of the Ministers who are 
here, and leave this evening. The Empress and the 
King of Rome are very well ; I saw them this morn- 
ing. This evening they will be at Chateaudun. The 
Ministers of War, of the Administration of the War, 
of Finance, of the Treasury, of the Interior, of the 
Navy, are here. Your Majesty must have heard from 
the marshals everything that has happened, and by 
what I said to M. Dejean, Your Majesty's aide-de- 
camp. The enemy's force was very great. The 
Dukes of Treviso and of Ragusa could not resist it." 

March 31, Marie Louise slept at Chateaudun, and 
reached Vend6me April 1. The next morning she 
left this place for Blois. From Vend6me, April 2, 
at 11 A.M., Joseph wrote to Napoleon : — 

" Sire : The Empress has just left for Blois, where 
she means to stop to-morrow to let her escort and the 



150 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 

horses rest. She exhibits a calmness and a courage 
exceptional in her sex and her age. I am waiting 
for horses and my family before leaving. The Min- 
isters of the Interior and of War are writing to Your 
Majesty. The state of the departments is such that 
I do not doubt that Your Majesty will do anything 
to make peace. The Ministers and courtiers whom 
I see exhibit firmness and devotion. I have received 
only two letters in cipher. Since neither M. Campi 
nor M. d'Hauterive has arrived, I have been unable 
to read them. The Archchancellor left shortly 
before the Empress. After your letter of the 21st, 
I did not receive any till that of the 31st. The 
Archchancellor has received a letter from M. de 
Bassano, in accordance with which he means to 
assemble the Ministers. He has read it to the Em- 
press as well as to me. It will be hard for all the 
Ministers to meet at Blois to-morrow evening. So 
far only those of War and of Interior have arrived ; 
none have any decided opinions ; their information is 
too meagre, and they seem to desire that Your Maj- 
esty should in his wisdom appoint the most suitable 
resting-place, which can only be determined by the 
military conditions. I enclose a package from the 
Minister of the Interior, with despatches from the 
Viceroy." 

The same day, April 2, Joseph wrote likewise from 
Vend6me, to Marshal Berthier, who was at Fontaine- 
bleau with Napoleon : " I have your letter of March 
31, from Fontainebleau. We shall be at Blois this 



THE REGENCY IN FLIGHT. 151 

evening. The Ministers of the Interior and of War 
are replying to Your Highness. The lack of arms 
still prevails. The other Ministers will not reach 
Blois before to-morrow. The Empress has left to get 
there this evening. I hope at Blois to hear from 
Your Highness and to learn the Emperor's positive 
decision about the destination of the court and the 
government. I beg Your Highness to have confi- 
dence in my old and lasting friendship. In one 
word: everything here indicates the need of peace. 
If it is possible to treat, it must be done at any price. 
The Royalists are beginning to show themselves ; 
peace of any sort will destroy a party that a con- 
tinuation of the war will make dangerous." 

Marie Louise had a wretched journey from Ven- 
d6me to Blois. It rained in torrents ; the roads were 
bad, and the carriages were out of repair. In the 
morning of Saturday, April 2, the first detachments 
of cavalry began to arrive at Blois, soon followed by 
the baggage- wagons and by the fifteen wagons with 
the contents of the Treasury. At about three in the 
afternoon the Prefect of the Department set forth to 
meet the Empress and the King of Rome. The 
National Guard and the governors were under arms* 
on each side of the road. At five o'clock, Marie 
Louise and her son entered the city amid an immense 
multitude, which remained perfectly silent. The 
leading citizens and the officials, especially those who 
lived nearest the prefecture, had been invited to pre- 
pare lodging for Madame Bonaparte, Napoleon's 



152 THE INVASION OF I8I4. 

mother, for Kings Joseph, Louis, and Jerome ; for the 
Archchancellor, the Ministers, the principal officials 
and finally, for eighteen hundred soldiers. The citj 
of Blois rises in the form of an amphitheatre, on the 
left bank of the Loire. The prefecture crowns one 
of the ends of this amphitheatre, and is reached only 
by very steep streets, or by flights of more than a 
hundred steps. The Ministers, who lived in the 
lower part of the city, had to climb these steps. 
Cambaceres, who lived half-way up, took a sedan- 
chair to go to the prefecture. 

Then Marie Louise saw herself surrounded by a 
whole government, or rather the image of a govern- 
ment, composed of her three brothers-in-law, the 
wives of Joseph and of Jerome, and of the Ministers. 
Archchancellor Cambacdres preserved all the custom- 
ary rigidity of etiquette. Arrayed in his uniform, 
and wearing his orders, he gravely gave formal audi- 
ences. " The Empress," says the Baron de Bausset, 
" presided over the councils of the Regency with an 
exactitude all the more meritorious because they led 
to nothing : there was no hope of safety there. The 
palace Avas like a sort of headquarters ; the Ministers, 
booted and spurred, went thither in undress uniform, 
without a portfolio, as if they only awaited a word to 
mount their horses to put the orders they should 
receive into execution. Nevertheless, since diplo- 
matic forms never relax their rigidity, even in the 
most distressing circumstances, nothing came from 
the discussions that took place, probably, too, be- 



THE REGENCY IN FLIGHT. 153 

cause in such a state of affairs there was nothing 
to say." 

April 2, Napoleon wrote from Fontainebleau to 
Joseph : " I have sent you word by the Grand Mar- 
shal not to fill up Blois. Let the King of Wiirtem- 
berg go into Brittany or towards Bourges. I think it 
would be well for my mother to join her daughter at 
Nice, and for Queen Julia and her children to go to 
Marseilles. The Princess of Neufch^tel and the 
wives of the Marshals ought to go to their estates. 
It is natural that King Louis, who always likes to 
live in hot countries, should go to Montpelier. It is 
important to have as few people as possible on the 
Loire, and that every one should get settled without 
making any disturbance. Every large colony always 
upsets the inhabitants more or less. The road to 
Provence is open, but may be closed any day. In 
the memorandum of the Ministers you say nothing 
of the Minister of Police. Has he come? I don't 
know whether the Minister of War has his cipher. 
I have none with you, and in the lack of it cannot 
write on matters of importance. Urge on all the 
most rigid economy." 

Joseph, April 3, thus replied : — 

" Sire : I have yours of the 2d. Mamma and 
Louis are ready to follow your wishes. She will 
need money ; her pension is six months in arrears. 
Jerome, too, has no money. My wife has no one at 
Marseilles. Expenses are much swollen by the fine 
carriages of the court. I have received no letter 



154 THE INVASION OF ISI4. 



from the Grand Marshal on that subject or on any 
other. The Minister of Police has arrived here on 
his way back from Tours. To-day's council wasi 
unanimous in its opinion and wishes. We await 
Your Majesty's decision about the place of residence. 
May the fears spread abroad by the news of the Duke 1 
of Vicenza prove groundless ! The Minister of War 
has no cipher with Your Majesty, neither have I. 
The Minister of the Treasury and of Finance do not 
know how to use theirs. M. de la Bouillerie would 
like to have orders about the safety of his charge. 
One of the wagons containing two millions, which 
had been left in Paris when the Empress started, 
has reached Orleans. Might not Jerome be sent to 
command the army of Lyons ? " 

As for King Louis, he kept himself in obscurity, 
appearing interested in nothing but the performance 
of the religious duties of Holy Week, which was just 
beginning. Palm Sunday, April 3, Marie Louise 
heard mass, which was said by Abbe Gallois, priest 
of the parish of Saint Louis ; for there was no almoner, 
chaplain, or clerk of the Imperial chapel in her suite. 
Poor woman ! she needed all her prayers to support 
the misfortunes now encompassing her. 



XIIL 

NAPOLEON AT FONTAINEBLEAU. 

ONE who visits Fontainebleau for the first time 
is sure to be filled with admiration and sur- 
prise. Especially is this true if the weather is fine 
and the palace is lit up by the sun. Then one is 
tempted to say : Happy are those who live in this 
beautiful spot ! But afterwards, as one grows familiar 
with the place, this first impression gives way to one 
of sadness ; one recalls melancholy memories of the 
famous personages who have dwelt here, and is filled 
with pity for what they have suffered in these sumptu- 
ous halls, and this loveliest of French palaces inspires 
a profound melancholy. This was certainly our im- 
pression on the occasion of our last visit, which took 
place on the 14th of July, the anniversary of the 
taking of the Bastille. That evening, the lanterns 
lit the Horseshoe Staircase, down which Napoleon 
came to press the eagle of the standard to his heart, 
and to take his memorable farewell of the grenadiers 
of his guard. 

This Courtyard of the White Horse is certainly 
not the most beautiful of the castle. It has far less 

155 



156 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

architectural beauty than the Courtyard of the Foun- 
tain or the Oval Courtyard. Its facade, composed of 
five three-storied pavilions with pointed roofs, lacks 
majesty. The great staircase, called from its shape 
the Horseshoe Staircase, is too heavy for the meagre 
pavilion on which it rests. The two wings, one of 
four stories, the other of but one, are very dissimilar, 
and that on the right, built by the architects of Louis 
XV., with no artistic feeling, is more like a barrack 
than a palace. Yet why is this courtyard always 
so impressive? Because one always recalls Horace 
Vernet's famous picture, and thinks of Napoleon 
coming down this staircase, pressing General Petit 
to his breast, kissing the eagle of the banner, and 
uttering that speech of which the echo will resound 
forever. 

As you enter the gateway you come into the vast 
Courtyard of the White Horse, so called from a 
plaster horse, moulded by Catharine de' Medici after 
the statue of Marcus Aurelius in Rome, which stood 
in the middle of the courtyard till 1626. To the 
right is the new wing built by Louis XV. ; on the left 
is the wing of the ministers. At the end of this large 
court, which measures five hundred feet by a little 
over two hundred, the faQade comes into view with 
its five pavilions ; before the middle one is the Horse- 
shoe Staircase, built in the reign of Louis XIII. Pass- 
ing beneath this staircase you enter a vestibule on 
the ground floor, opening, on the left, into the chapel 
of the Holy Trinity built by Francis I. on the site of 



NAPOLEON AT FONTAINEBLEAU. 157 

the oratory of Saint Louis. This is the best place 
for beginning the inspection of the palace. 

On leaving the chapel you are once more in the 
vestibule, and a flight of stairs takes you to the apart- 
ments of Napoleon I., all the rooms of which open on 
the Garden of Diana. First is the ante-chamber of the 
ushers, with three windows; then the room of the 
Emperor's secretaries, with two ; then two small rooms, 
each with one window; a drawing-room with two 
windows, which is decorated with red hangings : this 
is called the drawing-room of the abdication. In the 
middle of the room stands a little mahogany table ; 
if you tip it a little, you will see that there has been 
set in it a copper plate bearing this inscription, which 
is said to have been composed by Louis XVIII. : 
" April 5, 1814, Napoleon Bonaparte signed his abdi- 
cation on this table, in the King's workroom, the 
second from the bedchamber at Fontainebleau." 

Louis XVIII. took a sort of satisfaction in affirm- 
ing that the man whom he had always regarded as a 
usurper had signed his abdication in the royal work- 
room. In this same room Louis Philippe had placed 
on a bracket a fac-simile of the abdication. This was 
suppressed during the Second Empire, but it now 
stands in a glass case at the end of the Gallery of 
Diana. Next to this room is the Emperor's study, 
connected by a narrow staircase with his private li- 
brary, on the ground-floor next to his bedroom. 

This room has two windows ; the fireplace is in the 
style of the time of Louis XVI. ; the furniture is cov- 



158 THE INVASION OF ISI4. 

ered with Lyons velvet, with everywhere a gold N. ; 
the candelabra represent winged Victories; on the 
walls Loves are painted; the doors are carved and 
covered Avith gilt ; the clock is of marble with cameos 
inserted, a gift of Pius VII. : the whole appearance 
of the room is very impressive. It recalls, too, the 
sufferings of the great man who occupied it, his 
sleepless nights in which he endured anguish only 
equalled by his previous successes, his agony when 
he had tried to kill himself in despair. The room 
looks out on the Garden of Diana, called also the 
Garden of the Orange House, which lies between the 
palace and a high wall that intercepts the view of 
the distance. It is called the Garden of Diana after 
a statue of that goddess which stands there above a 
bronze fountain. This fountain was built in the 
First Empire, but its marble basin had been already 
hollowed by Henri IV. The garden is somewhat 
gloomy ; on the right stands the Chapel of the Holy 
Trinity, on the left is the old Gallery of the Stags, 
a melancholy construction, Avhich seems haunted by 
the ghost of the unhappy Marquis Monalderchini, 
who was so tragically put to death here by Queen 
Christine of Sweden. 

On the other side. Napoleon's rooms open into the 
gallery of Francis I. This magnificent gallery, whicli 
is as long as the Courtyard of the Fountain is broad, 
is to the Palace of Fontainebleau what the Gallery 
of the ]\Iirrors is to that of Versailles. There it was 
that, in the first twenty days of April, 1814, his faith- 



NAPOLEON AT FONTAINEBLEAU. 159 



ful officers and his last courtiers used to gather. 
This is the gallery which Napoleon passed through 
before going down the Horseshoe Staircase to bid 
farewell to his guard. It opens on a terrace with 
eight windows, where he often walked, seeing, on his 
right, the rooms of the Pope, so long his prisoner, 
where he uttered the words we shall soon cite. From 
there, too, he could see tlie sheet of water at the end 
of the Courtyard of the Fountain, bounded on one 
side by the walk of Madame de Maintenon, on the 
other by the English garden. 

Starting again from the Emperor's bedroom, we 
pass into the Council Hall with its charming pictures 
by Boucher and Van Loo. Next is the Throne Room, 
the former royal bedchamber, with its magnificent 
chandelier of rock crystal, the Imperial throne of red 
velvet, ascended by three steps, above which hangs a 
canopy supported by gold columns. Beyond is the 
boudoir of Marie Antoinette, with a picture of Aurora 
adorning the ceiling, and the Muses above the doors, 
and its mahogany floor into which is set the Queen's 
monogram ; and next to that her bedroom, called the 
Chamber of the Five Marys, from its having been 
occupied by Maria de' Medici, Maria Theresa, the 
wife of Louis XIV., Marie Antoinette, Marie 
Louise, and Marie Amelie (it was also the chamber 
of the Empress Eugenie) ; then comes the Music 
Room, which used to be the Queen's Cardroom in 
the time of Marie Antoinette ; and finally the Gal- 
lery of Diana. All these rooms, like those of Napo- 



160 THE INVASION OF I8I4. 

leon's apartment, open on the Garden of Diana. On 
the ground-floor, beneath the Emperor's quarters, are 
the rooms in which used to live his mother and his 
sister Pauline, and the one used as his private library. 
As we have said, a narrow staircase, in which there 
is not space for two people to pass, connects this 
room with the Emperor's study above. It is in this 
library, crowded with books, that Napoleon spent 
most of his time after his abdication, searching in 
histories for sufferings that rivalled his own. 

We will not speak of the sumptuous apartments 
that surrounded the Oval Courtyard, of the large 
reception-rooms of the last of the Valois, of the won- 
derful gallery of Henri II., decorated by Primatic- 
cio, for they have nothing to do with the abdication 
and the leave-taking. The time for pompous cere- 
monies, for banquets, balls, and concerts had passed. 
Doubtless Napoleon recalled his former splendor, and 
his brilliant stay at Fontainebleau after the campaign 
of Wagram, when, as Cambaceres put it, he seemed 
to walk about in glory. He might have said to him- 
self : " Here I inflicted pain on my tender and devoted 
Josephine ; here I dealt harshly with the Pope, that 
venerable man, who came to Paris from Rome for my 
coronation. I am punished for my sins. I recognize 
the hand of God in my chastisement. Had I not 
repudiated Josephine, she would now be by my side. 
I did wrong to imprison the Pope. He, not I, is free, 
and who knows if I may not soon be a prisoner ? " 

At first Napoleon did not give way to gloomy 



NAPOLEON AT FONTAINEBLEAU. 161 

thoughts. When he reached Fontainebleau, at six 
o'clock in the morning of March 31, 1814, and walked 
in the gardens, he could not yet measure the depth 
of the abj^s that opened before him. He had no 
suspicion of what threatened him. He never for a 
moment thought that his best officers — Berthier 
himself — would desert him; that henceforth Marie 
Louise would be only an Austrian ; that he should 
never more see wife or son; that before the end of 
the month he should be obliged to disguise him- 
self in an Austrian uniform to escape assassination at 
the hands of his own subjects ! 

From the time of Napoleon's arrival at Fontaine- 
bleau until his farewell to his guard, — that is to 
say, from the morning of March 31, 1814, until the 
afternoon of April 20, — he knew a , succession of 
agonies which only a Shakespeare could describe. 
The outlook grew darker from hour to hour; from 
hour to hour he was summoned to make ever cruder 
sacrifices. At first, with no thought of abdicating, 
the Emperor hoped by a grand victory to drive the 
foreigners from Paris. Then his marshals, opposing 
him for the first time, refused to obey him, and com- 
pelled him to abdicate. He still thought to save his 
dynasty, and abdicated in favor of his son. It was 
an illusion ! He was compelled to abdicate again, 
and this abdication included not only himself, but also 
his descendants. He — the Emperor — had to sign 
away with his own hands the rights of the King of 
Rome. He had one consolation at least, — that he did 



162 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 

not set his signature opposite the clauses which he 
regarded as disgraceful. " I abdicate," he exclaimed, 
" I abdicate ; but I yield nothing ! " Yet even this sad 
consolation was not left him. He was asked to sign 
a lamentable treaty granting his family and himself 
sums of money, — a treaty by which the Bonapartes 
received alms from their conquerors. This time 
the measure was full. The vanquished Titan could 
not endure this last humiliation ; he abandoned the 
struggle and tried to escape from fate by taking 
poison. But here again he was disappointed ; Death 
would have none of him ; it required that he should 
live to bring it fresh harvests, to make one final heca- 
tomb, — Waterloo ! The tragedy which seemed ended 
still had terrible scenes before the curtain fell. 

To return ^o the day of the Emperor's arrival at 
Fontainebleau, March 31 : when he saw once more his 
palace, rich with memories of his happiness, where he 
had always been obeyed and respected, he really be- 
lieved that his fortune had revived. That evening 
and the next morning soldiers began to arrive through 
Sens from Champagne, and through Essonnes appeared 
the vanguard of the troops who had left Paris. They 
formed around Fontainebleau, now become the Impe- 
rial headquarters. 

All the way along, the soldiers were thinking of 
nothing but their Emperor. They said as they 
marched: "We fought for him till night. Let him 
show himself. If he is alive, let him tell us what he 
wants ; we are ready to go on fighting ! Let him 



NAPOLEON AT FONTAINEBLEAU. 168 

lead us back to Paris ! If he is dead, let us know it, 
and we will have vengeance ! " Moncey, who com- 
manded the National Guard of Paris ; Lefebvre, who 
made the campaign, in spite of his sixty years ; Ney, 
Macdonald, Oudinot, Bertliier, wdio had just arrived 
from Troyes; Marmont and Mortier, who had left 
Paris, all reported at the Emperor's headquarters. 
Marmont established his own headquarters at Es- 
sonnes ; Mortier, at Mennecy. The troops arriving 
from Paris assembled behind this line ; those coming 
from Champagne took up an intermediate position 
towards Fontainebleau. The stores and the great 
artillery park moved towards Orleans. 

The evening of April 1, Napoleon had, at different 
points, twenty-five or thirty thousand men. If his 
marshals, his generals, who had grown old in harness, 
felt weary, the privates, non-commissioned officers, and 
line officers were still full of ardor : the old ones set 
an example of intrepidity ; the young ones, like their 
elders, thought of nothing but battles and glory. 
They felt like saying to their superiors who were 
spoiled by fortune and luxury, *' You are tired ; but 
we are not." 

Could Napoleon despair, when hope still inspired 
so many of his men ? With such soldiers under him, 
he could not endure to think that he was no longer 
the arbiter of Europe and the master of France. 
The thought of his wife and son in flight, of his capi- 
tal in the hands of foreigners, of the Bourbons ruling 
in his place, seemed like a hideous nightmare. Pie 



164 ' THE INVASION OF 1814. 

was convinced that he was soon to enter the Tuileries 
in triumph ; and as he looked upon his faithful men, 
he thought : With such soldiers, nothing is impossi- 
ble. To-day I am unlucky, but I shall have my 
revenge to-morrow. 

He studied his maps and the reports of his troops 
with all the ardor of his youth, saying : " While I am 
here, the enemy is more fatigued than I. His gen- 
erals, convinced of their safety, are scattered in the 
different hotels. The soldiers are wandering through 
the labyrinth of the streets of Paris. A sudden 
attack on the capital might have the best results. 
Why should I not try it? This is one of those crises, 
when the right and wrong use of minutes may save 
or lose a crown. In Paris they are weaving plans 
against me. My way of meeting them is by a great 
military blow, a thunderbolt. The Allies have lost, 
in killed and wounded, about twelve thousand men, 
under the walls of Paris. They have now, I know, 
more than a hundred and eighty thousand men; I 
shall soon have seventy thousand. With an army 
like that, devoted to me, I can do anything. Already 
it calls upon me to advance ; why should I hesitate ? 
My luck has turned ; the Allies have made blunders 
for which they will pay dear; they have been rash 
enough to divide into three bodies, one of eighty 
thousand men on the left bank of the Seine, between 
the Essonnes and Paris, another inside of the capital, 
a third outside of the city, on the other side of the 
Seine. Their position is fatal for them if I know 



NAPOLEON AT FONTAINEBLEAU. 165 

how to take advantage of it, and I do. I shall beat 
their three corps in turn. I am going to cross the 
Essonnes suddenly, and drive Schwarzenberg's eighty 
thousand men back into Paris, and make one last 
appeal to the patriotic heroism of the inhabitants of 
the city, and the tricolor will float in triumph over 
the Tuileries, on the Pavilion of the Clock; the 
traitors will return to their burrows ; the jDcasants of 
Burgundy, Champagne, and Lorraine will complete 
my work by driving the Coalition across the Rhine." 
Such were the plans that Napoleon was weaving 
at Fontainebleau, and it would be hard to say that 
they were mere illusions. Thiers did not think so : 
" The opposing forces were very uneven, but the zeal 
of the army, — that, at least, in the ranks, — Napo- 
leon's genius, and local conditions, might w^ell have 
outweighed the numerical inferiority, and everything 
promised a fearful blow to either the capital or the 
Coalition. When we think of the prize of success, if 
Napoleon had triumphed, of France restored to its 
greatness, — and its true dimensions, not the mad ones, 
the Rhine frontier, not that of the Elbe, — we do not 
hesitate to say that the possible advantage justified the 
risk, even had all the splendor of Paris perished in 
the bloody struggle. The frontier of the Rhine was 
well worth all that might have been lost in the capi- 
tal, and we could not approve those who, after follow- 
ing Napoleon to Moscow, would not have followed 
him this time to Paris." And the great historian 
adds : " If he was mistaken, it seems to us that it 



166 THE INVASION OF I8I4. 

was better to be mistaken with him that day than to 
be mistaken with him at Wihia in 1812, at Dresden 
in 1813. Moreover, by overlooking the dangers of 
Paris, he reasoned about that city as the Russians 
reasoned about Moscow; and he thought no price too 
high to pay for the extermination of the enemy after 
they had penetrated to the heart of France." 

Meanwhile time was pressing. A review was held 
before the Courtyard of the White Horse, April 1 and 
2. Yet Napoleon did not advance ; he was waiting 
for re-enforcements, and was averse to taking any 
decisive steps before he had seen the Duke of Vi- 
cenza, whom he had sent to Paris to try to treat with 
the Allies. Caulaincourt reported at Fontairiebleau in 
the night of April 2, but he brought bad news. At 
noon, March 31, the Emperor of Russia and the King 
of Prussia had entered Paris, and cries in favor of the 
Bourbons had been heard as they rode along. White 
cockades had made their appearance. The Czar had 
taken up his quarters in the rue Saint Florentin, at 
the house of Talleyrand, which was the centre of 
Royalist intrigues. The Senate had met April 1 
with Talleyrand as President, and had appointed a 
provisional government composed of Talleyrand, 
Beurnonville, Jaucourt, Dalberg, and the Abbe de 
Montesquiou. Caulaincourt still thought that if 
Napoleon would abdicate without delay, there was 
a chance for the King of Rome. Alexander had 
received him as courteously as he had done when he 
represented at the Russian court the hero of Auster- 



NAPOLEON AT FONTAINEBLEAU. 167 

litz and Friedland, and liad given him some ground 
for this hope. The question of the Bourbons was 
not absolutely decided. "Go back," the Czar had 
said; "make your master abdicate, and we will see. 
Everything proper and honorable will be done. I 
have not forgotten what is due a man so great and 
so unfortunate." 

When the Duke of Vicenza reached Fontaine- 
bleau, he reported all this to the Emperor, and 
besought him to abdicate in favor of the King of 
Rome. " You must not think," answered Napoleon, 
"that fortune has definitely decided. If I had my 
army, I should have attacked already, and all would 
have been over in two hours ; for the enemy is in a 
most precarious position. What a glorious thing it 
would be to drive them out ! What a glorious thing 
for the Parisians to repel the Cossacks and to give 
them over to the peasants of Burgundy and Lorraine, 
who would finish them! But it is only postponed; 
day after to-morrow I shall have the corps of Mac- 
donald, Oudinot, and Gerard, and if they follow me, 
I shall change the state of affairs. The commanders 
are tired, but the men will march. My old guard will 
set the example, and not a soldier will hesitate to 
follow them. In a few hours, my dear Caulaincourt, 
all may be changed." And he added: "No, all is 
not over yet. They try to get rid of me, because 
they know that I alone can alter our fortune. I do 
not care for the throne; of that you may be sure. 
I can become a citizen once more. You know my 



168 THE INVASION OF I8I4. 

tastes. What do I ask for? A little bread, if I 
live; six feet of earth, if I die. It is true, I have 
loved and I still love glory, but mine is beyond the 
reach of human hands. If I want to command for a 
few days more, it is to restore our fortunes, to save 
France from her implacable enemies." This inter- 
view, which took place in the Emperor's bedroom, 
lasted well into the night. At last Napoleon sent 
the Duke of Vicenza off to rest, and soon he was 
himself sleeping soundly. 

The morning of April 3 he woke up still bent on 
fighting. So far from preparing to abdicate he was 
anxious to arouse the warlike ardor of his troops by 
a speech. In the course of the day he assembled his 
old guard in the Courtyard of ^the White Horse and 
addressed them thus : " Officers, non-commissioned 
officers, and soldiers, the enemy have stolen three 
marches on us. They have entered Paris. I have 
offered the Emperor Alexander a peace bought by 
great sacrifices, — France with its old boundaries, thus 
renouncing our conquests, and losing all we have 
won since the Revolution. Not only has he refused ; 
he has done more : yielding to the perfidious sug- 
gestions of the ^migr^s whose life I spared, whom I 
loaded with benefits, he has authorized them to wear 
the white cockade, which soon he will substitute for 
that of the nation. In a few days I shall attack 
Paris. I count on you." 

Here the Emperor, who had been listened to in 
religious silence, stopped for a moment. Then re- 



NAPOLEON AT FONTAINEBLEAU. 169 

suming, still amid profound silence, he asked, " Am 
I right ? " At once there was an enthusiastic cry of 
" Long live the Emperor ! To Paris ! To Paris ! " 
Encouraged by their ardor, Napoleon went on ; " We 
shall prove to them that the French nation rules in 
its own home ; that if we have long been the masters 
abroad, we shall always be masters here, and that we 
are capable of defending our colors, our independ- 
ence, and the integrity of our territory. Communi- 
cate these sentiments to the soldiers." When the 
Emperor had finished, wild applause greeted him. 
The foot-soldiers waved their guns, the cavalry bran- 
dished their sabres, tears of rage and patriotism filled 
every eye. It was not mere enthusiasm, but a de- 
lirious fury that seized them. Patriotic joy lit up 
Napoleon's face, a moment before so gloomy ; yet the 
very next day he was to abdicate I 



XIV. 



THE FIRST ABDICATION. 



lyrAPOLEON'S soldiers were, like himself, still 
-LM full of ardor. The troops whom he reviewed 
in the Courtyard of the White Horse, April 3, passed 
before him at double-quick, shouting more ener- 
getically than ever : " Long live the Emperor ! " An 
eye-witness has described the march of these valiant 
soldiers through the forest of Fontainebleau after 
the review; he says: "At nightfall the serried and 
silent column moved towards Paris, marching with 
firm and resolute step through the Imperial forest. 
The venerable oaks, the mighty trees under which 
the veterans advanced towards almost certain death, 
the moonlight magnifying almost every object, lent 
a certain majestic solemnity to this warlike march. 
A sullen and threatening silence prevailed in the 
ranks. Nothing was heard but the dull rolling of 
the cannon, the regular footfall of the men, the 
clatter of sabres and bayonets. The thoughts of 
these men who had escaped from so many battles 
were full of gloom. Occasionally they turned their 
eyes sadly on the batteries of howitzers that accom- 
170 



I 



THE FIRST ABDICATION. 171 

panied them. It was plain that they were deeply 
impressed by the oath they had just taken, and were 
solemnly preparing themselves either to die or to 
avenge the Emperor and the Empire, and to fall 
under the walls or beneath the blood-stained ruins of 
the capital." 

While the men and non-commissioned officers and 
the line officers were manifesting this heroism, it was 
far otherwise with the principal leaders, who made 
no effort to hide their desire for peace. In the 
immediate neighborhood of the Emperor's bedroom, 
in the gallery of Francis L, they uttered their mur- 
murs and lamentations. Whither does the Emperor 
design to take us ? they asked. What can he hope 
for now? There is a limit to everything. Human 
force is not eternal. We have done enough; we 
must have peace. Have we not made enough sacri- 
fices ? Must Paris be burned like Moscow ? Oh ! 
that is too much. We must venture to tell the 
Emperor the truth. We must persuade him to abdi- 
cate in favor of his son. 

What followed? By what process was the un- 
happy monarch compelled to abdicate at the very 
moment when he hoped to regain his fortune ; when 
he was about to order the Imperial headquarters to 
be moved to a point between Ponthiery and Es- 
sonnes ; when he had just reviewed his faithful 
soldiers, and had uttered a most warlike speech to 
them ; when he was planning a terrible revenge, to 
crush the Allies under the walls of Paris, to drive 



172 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 

them into the Seine, and to scatter them beyond 
the Rhin3? 

Thiers and General de S^gur do not agree about 
the details of the scene which resulted in the Em- 
peror's decision to abdicate. Thiers says it took 
place in the morning of April 4 ; the General says it 
was in the evening of the 3d. We are inclined to 
think that the story of General de S^gur is the more 
accurate. His account runs thus : " These facts, which 
I have received from eye-witnesses, explain why the 
Emperor, after his proclamation and the departure 
of his guard, so suddenly and completely altered 
his plan. They are, however, so important, that 
after writing them down, I read them several times 
to these witnesses in order to make sure of their com- 
plete and thorough accuracy. I should have preferred 
to say nothing about them, but that would have been 
an injustice not merely to the cause of truth, but also 
to Napoleon ; it would have been adding to his mis- 
fortune the unjust accusation of an unseemly betrayal 
of himself and of our cause ; of a faint-heartedness 
which history, in the absence of our revelations, 
would judge unfavorably, and which would unjustly 
stain his memory." In a foot-note, he says : " Among 
other witnesses, I will cite Saint Aignan, Fain, and 
Marshal Moncey, who have often assured me of the 
exact truth of my account, which has also been con- 
firmed by others. As for the part which Marshal 
Macdonald took in this abdication, it is from his own 
dictation that I have recorded all the particulars. I 



I 



THE FIRST ABDICATION. 173 

have read them over to him, and he has pronounced 
them absolutely exact." Let us then follow General 
de S^gur's account, which bears every mark of accu- 
racy. 

April 3, towards six in the evening, the officers 
met near the Emperor's apartment in the palace of 
Fontainebleau, to give utterance to their complaints 
and their wrath. Excited by all the violent remarks, 
which were like the beginning of those seditious 
military outbreaks of which the history of the Roman 
Empire is full, the violent and irascible Marshal Ney 
undertook to persuade the Emperor to abdicate. He 
suddenly burst into the room of the monarch who 
was to reign but a few hours more. " Sire," he broke 
forth, " it is time to stop. Your position is that of a 
man on his deathbed. You must make your will and 
abdicate in favor of the King of Rome." — " But we 
can still fight. We can recover our fortune." '' No ! 
that is impossible. The army will not follow you ; you 
have lost its confidence." — " The army will be suffi- 
ciently obedient to punish you for your revolt." 
" What ! if you had the power, should I be here 
now?" The Marshal grew excited by his own 
words; his voice and gestures became threatening. 
Seeing that he had gone too far, he stopped, and 
added, more gently : " Don't be afraid ; we haven't 
come here to act a Saint Petersburg scene before you." 
And in a few moments he withdrew in anything but 
a respectful attitude. 

Napoleon knew that he was ruined. What ! one 



174 THE INVASION OF 18U. 

of his lieutenants, a marshal, had dared to use such 
language to Am, the Emperor ! When men the day 
before so humble, so docile, presumed so far, all, he 
saw, must be in ruins, the last gleam of hope must 
have vanished. Illusion was impossible. Napoleon 
saw his fate before him. He knew that the next day 
he should be forced to abdicate. Then he wrote to 
the Baron de Meneval a letter in which he ordered 
him to urge Marie Louise to appeal to her father and 
Metternich to establish her right to the Regency, 
adding this sinister prophecy — that even this might 
fail, in which case everything, even death, would be 
possible, and there would then be nothing left for the 
Empress but to throw herself and her son into the 
arms of the Emperor of Austria. 

The next day, April 4, at about eleven in the 
morning, Ney, Berthier, Caulaincourt, Moncey, Le- 
febvre, and the Duke of Bassano met in the Emperor's 
dining-room, and waited for him there. Soon he 
appeared. " Stay ! " he said to them, without another 
word; he breakfasted hurriedly, and returned to his 
drawing-room, bidding them follow. They gathered 
about him in silence. After meditating for a few 
moments, he looked at Caulaincourt, and exclaimed : 
" Well, since they refuse to treat with me, since my 
resistance would be the signal for civil war, I am 
willing to sacrifice myself for the happiness of France. 
I will abdicate." At these words. Marshal Moncey 
seized the Emperor's hand, and kissing it respectfully, 
said : " Sire, you save France. Receive my tribute 



THE FIRST ABDICATION. 175 

of admiration and gratitude." Then, as Napoleon 
looked at him with some surprise, he added: ''Do 
not misunderstand me, that is my feeling. Sire ; but 
give the command, and I shall follow you wherever 
you please." Then the Emperor called his secretary. 
Baron Fain, and asked him to bring the draft of the 
abdication. At Caulaincourt's suggestion, he made 
two changes with his own hand. "There it is," he 
said at last to Caulaincourt, " and so it shall stand. I 
shall make no further alterations." 

Caulaincourt read the paper aloud ; it ran thus : 
" The Allied Powers having declared that the Em- 
peror Napoleon was the sole obstacle to the re-estab- 
iishment of peace in Europe, the Emperor Napoleon, 
faithful to his oath, declares that he is ready to 
descend from the throne, to leave France, even to 
die, for the good of his country, inseparable from the 
rights of his son, from those of the Empress's Regency, 
and the maintenance of the laws of the Empire. Done 
at Fontainebleau, April 4, 1814." 

When the reading was over. Marshal Oudinot, the 
Duke of Reggio, and Marshal Macdonald, Duke of 
Taranto, were announced. They had come from 
Champagne, a few hours in advance of their troops, 
who had made the campaign with the Emperor, fol- 
lowing him in his march to the east and returning 
towards Paris, though in spite of every effort they 
had not been able to reach him in time to save the 
capital. At last the three corps of Oudinot, Mac- 
donald, and Gerard were near Fontainebleau, — those 



176 THE INVASION OF I8I4. 

three army corps which the Emperor longed for so 
ardently when he reached the Fountains of Juvisy, 
alone, the night of March 30, at the very moment 
when the capitulation of Paris was about to be signed ! 
They were approaching, and if they were favorably 
disposed, and shared the feelings of the troops the 
Emperor had reviewed the previous day, the abdica- 
tion just read might be a dead letter. 

When he saw Macdonald, Napoleon asked him how 
he was. "Very well, Sire," answered the Marshal, 
''but cruelly distressed and very unhappy because 
the fortune of arms has denied us the last honor of 
fighting before Paris and of dying in defending our 
capital from this great affront." " Where are the 
troops ? " — " They are arriving. Sire, but determined 
not to march against Paris. I come in their name to 
say this to you ; I come to tell you that, however the 
capital may decide, not one of us will draw his 
sword against it, not one of us will moisten it with 
the blood of his compatriots." "But I have never 
thought of such a thing. How could you think it ? " 
— "Sire, that is what is said everywhere, and the 
army is united against it. They say there has been 
enough misery ; they refuse to make Paris another 
Moscow." "But what an odious supposition! what 
an absurdity ! Do you forget my care and con- 
stant love for the capital? Do you forget all I 
have done for it?" — "But, Sire, does Your Majesty 
know all that is going on there?" "Yes, I know 
that the Allies refuse to treat with me." — "That 



I 



THE FIRST ABDICATION. 177 

is not all; unfortunately this letter will tell you 
more." 

Thereupon the Marshal showed the Emperor a 
letter which he received from Beurnonville, one of the 
members of the Provisional Government. Instead of 
bearing the address: "Marshal Macdonald, Duke of 
Taranto," it bore this : " To Marshal Macdonald, 
Duke of Ragusa." Macdonald had been given Mar- 
mont's title. Perhaps it was not an accidental mis- 
take ; possibly the writer had wanted both the Marshals 
to read the letter. At any rate, that is what happened. 
Marmont received the letter first ; he opened it and 
then forwarded it to his colleague. It announced 
the dethronement of the Emperor and his family, 
the recall of the Bourbons, the hope of the English 
constitution for France, the confirming of all the 
officers of the French army in their position. The 
Emperor took the letter, read it calmly, and then 
handing it to the Duke of Bassano, bade him read it 
aloud. This done. Napoleon exclaimed: "I sought 
the glory and happiness of France, but I have failed. 
I abdicate and withdraw." " Oh, Sire ! " answered 
Marshal Macdonald, " what a blow ! I came to urge 
peace, not abdication." " Yes," resumed the Em- 
peror, "I decide to abdicate. But do you agree to 
receive my son as my successor, and to accept the 
Regency of the Empress?" They all expressed their 
assent by word and gesture. 

Who were the plenipotentiaries to carry to the 
Allies this abdication, and to try a final effort to save, 



178 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

if not Napoleon, at least his dynasty ? This is what 
Baron Fain says : " The Duke of Vicenza was pre- 
paring to carry the paper to Paris, and Napoleon 
appointed the Prince of Moskowa as his colleague : 
he wanted to add the Duke of Ragusa, the oldest of 
his fellow-soldiers surviving, feeling that in an affair 
of such vital importance for his family he needed 
such support as his old aide would give. This ap- 
pointment was about to be made out when some one 
suggested to Napoleon that in a negotiation in which 
the army was concerned it would be well to employ 
a man like the Duke of Taranto, who would have 
more influence because he was less intimate with 
Napoleon. The Duke of Bassano, when Napoleon 
asked his opinion, thought that whatever Marshal 
Macdonald's opinions might be, he was too honorable 
a man to act otherwise than with scrupulous recti- 
tude in a matter of this sort. Napoleon at once 
appointed the Duke of Taranto his third plenipo- 
tentiary. But he still wanted the plenipotentiaries, 
as they passed through Essonnes, to tell the Duke of 
Ragusa what had happened, but to leave him free 
to decide whether he might not be of more use in 
staying in command of his corps; if, however, he 
cared to take part in this mission to which he was 
appointed through Napoleon's special confidence in 
him, he would at once receive full power." 

Macdonald prepared to leave at once for Paris, 
with Ney and Caulaincourt, and with Messrs. Ray- 
neval and Rumigny, their secretaries, and he took 



THE FIBST ABDICATION. 179 

leave of the Emperor; as he had his hand on the 
half-opened door, Napoleon exclaimed : " Come now, 
let us march to-morrow morning, and we will beat 
them again." The Marshal pretended not to hear, 
and bustled down the Horseshoe Staircase, where he 
joined his companions, and drove off for Paris, to 
open the negotiations, the last and the only hope of 
the dynasty of the Bonapartes. 



XV. 



THE DEFECTION OF ESSONNES. 

"IVTEY, Macdonald, and Caulaincourt, invested with 
-Li full power by the Emperor, left Fontaine- 
bleau, April 4, 1814, to go to Paris to plead the cause 
of Marie Louise and of the King of Rome. They 
were to stop at Essonnes the same day to see Marshal 
Marmont and to ask the Prince of Wiirtemberg, the 
commander of the outposts of the Allies, for the safe- 
conduct they required for crossing the enemy's lines 
and entering the capital. 

Essonnes, a village in the department of Seine-et- 
Oise, four and a half miles from Corbeil, was the 
headquarters of Marshal Marmont, Duke of Ragusa, 
and of the Sixth Corps,, which had been under his 
orders since the beginning of the campaign. The 
river issuing from the forest of Orleans, and falling 
into the Seine at Corbeil, is also named the Essonnes. 
This river separated Marmont's troops from those of 
the Allies, and Prince Schwarzenberg had his head- 
quarters at the castle of Petit Bourg, a little village 
two and a half miles from Corbeil. 

The three plenipotentiaries reached Essonnes at 
180 



THE DEFECTION OF ESSONNES. 181 

about five in the evening, full of delight at the pros- 
pect of meeting Marmont, who had covered himself 
with glory during the whole campaign of France, 
and especially in the heroic battle of Paris. Mar- 
mont, the companion of Napoleon's boyhood, his 
fellow-student, the friend of his youth, the eye- 
witness of his first exploits, who seemed the most 
enthusiastic partisan and most ardent and chivalrous 
defender of the wife and son of his benefactor, sur- 
prised Ney, Macdonald, and Caulaincourt by his 
gloomy face and embarrassed air. What was the 
mystery? What had happened? Naturally, Mar- 
mont had hesitated a little before confessing the 
truth. Something had happened which was to bring 
ruin to the Imperial dynasty : Marmont had betrayed 
the Empire. 

The Duke of Ragusa himself, in his Memoirs, 
recounts the circumstances that led to this act so out 
of harmony with his character and glorious antece- 
dents. The first suggestion of the step was made to 
him at an interview held in Paris at his house in the 
rue du Paradis Poissonni^re, in the evening of March 
30, 1814, a few hours after the battle, when he was 
preparing to arrange the clauses of the capitulation 
imposed upon the capital. "I must describe," he 
says, " a conversation which took place at my house 
in the course of the evening ; for it fairly represents 
my opinions at that time. A number of my friends 
had met there, and talk turned to the state of affairs 
and the way it might be bettered. The feeling 



182 THE INVASION OF ISI4. 

seemed to be general that the fall of Napoleon was 
the only condition of safety. Then we talked about 
the Bourbons ; their most earnest defender, the man 
who made the deepest impression on me, was M. 
Laffitte. He openly declared himself their supporter, 
and when I repeated the arguments addressed some 
time before to my brother-in-law, he replied : ' Well, 
Marshal, with written guarantees, with a political 
order that shall establish our rights, what is to be 
feared ? ' When I heard a man of the middle classes, 
a plain banker, express such an opinion, I thought 
that I heard the voice of the whole city of Paris." 

The members of the Provisional Government had 
at once thought that they could do something with 
the Duke of Ragusa. " Yet," says Thiers, " Mar- 
mont had not a traitor's soul — far from it. But he 
was vain, ambitious, weak, and unfortunately these 
qualities, in time of confusion, often lead to acts 
which posterity blames." A M. de Montessny, who 
had been his aide-de-camp for many years, had left 
the army to go into business, and had come out 
warmly for the Bourbons. The members of the Pro- 
visional Government thought he would be an excel- 
lent emissary to attempt to bring over the Marshal, 
and they sent him to Essonnes, where he arrived 
April 3, at about five in the afternoon. He was 
the bearer of a letter from Prince Schwarzenberg, 
which ran thus : — 

" Marshal : I have the honor of transmitting to 
Your Excellency, by a trusty person, all the papers 



THE DEFECTION OF ESSONNES. 183 

and documents necessary to give Your Excellency 
information about what has occurred since Your 
Excellency left the capital, as well as an invitation 
from the members of the Provisional Government to 
enlist under the banners of the good French cause. I 
urge you, in the name of your country and of human- 
ity, to consider these propositions which will put a 
stop to the shedding of the blood of the brave men 
you command." 

Marmont speaks of his feelings on receiving from 
the hands of his former aide-de-camp Prince Schwarz- 
enberg's message, the decree of the Senate pronounc- 
ing the dethronement of the Emperor, and many 
letters from important persons urging him to accept 
it. " It would be hard," he says, " to describe the 
various feelings this news produced and the reflections 
it aroused. The deep agitation was the forerunner 
of the feelings that the memory of those great events 
never ceases to call forth. Having been so long 
devoted to Napoleon, the misfortunes overwhelming 
him awoke in me that old and warm affection which 
in other days had outweighed every other feeling, 
and yet my devotion to my country and the possibil- 
ity of helping its condition and its fate, inspired me 
with a longing to save it from complete ruin. It is 
easy for a man of honor to do his duty when it lies 
clear before him, but it is hard to live at a time when 
one can and must ask. What is my duty? Such times 
I have seen in my own life. Thrice in my life have 
I had to face this problem. Happy are those who 



184 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 



I 



live under a regular government, and in such obscur- 
ity that they escape such trials ! Let them not blame 
what they are too inexperienced to judge properly 1 " 

The unfortunate Marshal goes on : " However 
great my interest in Napoleon, I could not fail to see 
what harm he had done to France. He alone had 
dug the abyss into which we were falling. What 
efforts we had made, and I especially, to avoid plung- 
ing into it ! The conviction of having done more 
than my duty in the campaign confirmed my opinion. 
I had worked harder than any of my colleagues, and 
displayed unremitting constancy and perseverance. 
Might not these great efforts, which had been contin- 
ued so long as there was any chance of their doing 
good, make my score with Napoleon clean, and had 
I not fully paid what I owed him ? Ought not the 
country to have its turn ? " 

After M. de Montessny had gone, the Marshal told 
Colonel Fabvier, the second officer of his staff, the 
message he had received from the Provisional Gov- 
ernment, and asked him what answer he thought 
should be made to the proposition it contained. Fab- 
vier, who at the moment happened to be standing 
beside a large exotic tree, answered, pointing at one 
of the strongest of its branches : " It seems to me 
that under other circumstances the answer ought to 
be that. However, it would be necessary to inform 
the Emperor of this melancholy attempt." " That is 
what I shall do," answered Marmont, and then they 
sat down to the table. 



THE DEFECTION OF ES SON NFS. 185 

In the evening the Marshal dreAV up his reply to 
the letter of Prince Schwarzenberg ; it ran thus : — 

"Marshal: I have received the letter which Your 
Highness has done me the honor of writing to me, as 
well as all the papers enclosed. Public opinion has 
always been the rule of my conduct. The army and 
the people, being freed from their oath of fidelity to 
the Emperor Napoleon by the decree of the Senate, I 
am disposed to assist a union between the people and 
the army, which shall prevent all chance of civil war, 
and the effusion of French blood. Hence I am ready 
to leave, with my troops, the army of the Emperor 
Napoleon, on the following conditions, for which I 
desire a written guarantee : — 

" Article I. I, Prince Schwarzenberg, Marshal and 
Commander-in-chief of the Allied Armies, do hereby 
guarantee to all the French troops, who in accordance 
with the decree of the Senate of April 2, shall leave 
the standard of Napoleon Bonaparte, that they shall 
be able freely to withdraw to Normandy, with arms, 
baggage, and supplies, and with all the military hon- 
ors accorded to the Allied troops. 

" Article II. That if, in consequence of this move- 
ment, the events of war should throw into the hands 
of the Allied Powers the person of Napoleon Bona- 
parte, his life and liberty shall be guaranteed him 
within some narrow territory in some limited region, 
to be chosen by the Allied Powers and the French 
Government." 

The next day, April 4, Marmont summoned all his 



1 



186 THE INVASION OF 18 U, 



generals except General Chastel, to his room, and 
there drew a picture of the condition of things in 
connection with his plan. He said that the Emperor, 
after committing fault after fault, and having by his 
tactical blunders, let the Allies enter Paris, now enter- 
tained the mad idea of attacking them in Paris itself, 
with fifty thousand men against two hundred thou- 
sand, thus exposing the few soldiers left him to 
almost certain destruction beneath the ruins of the 
capital and of France. He then urged them to hand 
in their adhesion to the Provisional Government. 
Then he read to them his answer to Prince Schwarz- 
enberg's letter, of which they approved both the 
matter and the manner, and Marmont at once sent it 
to the Commander-in-chief. 

A few moments later he thought of explaining 
himself to the Emperor, for his conscience was begin- 
ning to trouble him. That same day, April 4, he 
wrote the following letter which, however, he did 
not send, for before night he became aware of the 
magnitude of the fault he had committed, and aban- 
doned, though too late, his fatal decision : — fl 

"Essonnes, April 4, 1814. Sire: I have served 
you with devotion for more than twenty years, and 
my zeal has only been redoubled with your misfor- 
tunes. Sustained by the opinion of my country, my 
efforts would have had no limit, for adversity has 
never had terrors for me. But, Sire, it is against 
the opinion of France, and soon against Frenchmen 
themselves, that we turn our arms. The excitement 



I 



THE DEFECTION OF ESSONNES. 187 

prevailing in Paris, Lyons, Bordeaux, Marseilles,- the 
unanimous feeling expressed witli so much warmth, 
the decree of the Senate, indicate the true public opin- 
ion, and this should be the law for a good Frenchman, 
for a citizen. Moreover, Sire, in what a terrible posi- 
tion we are placed ! Either fortune will temporarily 
crown your efforts, and then the sacking of Paris 
and the flight of its inhabitants are the result ; or it 
is unfavorable, and then. Sire, with your immediate 
ruin is bound up the ruin of the rest of the militia, 
perhaps too soon necessary for the safety of the 
country, who, fighting for it supported by opinion, 
will be able to save it. It is then out of devotion to 
France that I do what my heart condemns, but what 
is commanded by my country's welfare. I ought to 
^vithdraw from your ranks the day that the nation 
reproves you; but, after saving the country, I am 
ready to ^^lace my head at your disposal, if you desire 
it. I have not tampered with the generals or the 
troops of whom you have given me the command. 
They all agree with me that the will of the nation 
should be a law to them, and that now nothing makes 
this doubtful." 

Marmont was already anxious, as his letter shows. 
His heart was beginning to condemn the resolution 
he had formed. Continually the grand figure of 
Napoleon haunted him, inspiring remorse which tor- 
tured his inmost soul all the rest of his life. Four 
days before he had visited Napoleon at Fontainebleau, 
and had been most cordially received by the Emperor. 



188 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

" Our noble defence," he himself says, " had received 
his praise. He ordered me to make out a list of 
rewards for those brave soldiers who, up to the last, 
had with untiring devotion and courage maintained 
an unequal conflict." And now, four days after this 
cordial interview with his master, his old fellow- 
soldier, his friend and benefactor, his sovereign, 
Marmont was abandoning him and making him over 
to his enemies. 

Meanwhile Prince Schwarzenberg had hastened to 
send his answer to Essonnes. "Marshal," he said, 
"I cannot give fitting expression to the satisfaction 
I feel on learning how readily you respond to the 
invitation of the Provisional Government to place 
yourself, in accordance with this month's decree, 
under the banners of the French cause. The distin- 
guished services you have rendered your country are 
everywhere recognized, but you crown them all by 
restoring to their country the few who have escaped 
from the ambition of a single man. I beg of you to 
believe that I have especially appreciated the delicacy 
of the arrangement which you propose, and which I 
accept, concerning the person of Napoleon. Nothing 
better characterizes the noble generosity of the French, 
which especially distinguishes Your Excellency." 

Matters were in this state when, April 4, towards 
five in the afternoon, Marmont found himself in pres- 
ence of Ney, Macdonald, and Caulaincourt. As soon 
as they had informed him of the Emperor's abdication 
and of their mission, the scales fell from his eyes ; he 



1 



THE DEFECTION OF ESSONNES. 189 

saw the full extent of his fault. *' This event," he 
says, speaking of the arrival of the three plenipoten- 
tiaries at Essonnes, " changed the face of things. In 
my isolation, I had not been able to consult the other 
leaders of the army. I had sacrificed my affections 
for the good of my country, but a greater sacrifice 
than mine, that which Napoleon had made, had sanc- 
tioned it. Therewith, my design was carried out, and 
I had no longer need to immolate myself. My duty 
commanded me to join with my comrades. I should 
have been guilty if I had continued to act alone. 
Consequently, I informed the plenipotentiaries of my 
conferences with Schwarzenberg, adding that I at 
once broke off all personal negotiation, and should 
never separate from them. These gentlemen asked 
me to accompany them to Paris. Reflecting that, 
after what had happened, my joining them might 
have great weight, I eagerly consented. Before leav- 
ing Essonnes, I explained to the generals I left in 
command, among others to the oldest. General Sou- 
ham, and to Generals Campons and BordessouUe, the 
reasons for my absence, and announced to them my 
speedy return. I ordered them, in the presence of 
the plenipotentiaries, in no circumstances to make the 
slightest movement before my return." 

Night had fallen when the three plenipotentiaries, 
accompanied by Marmont reached Petit Bourg, Prince 
Schwarzenberg's headquarters, to ask for the safe- 
conduct necessary for the continuation of their jour- 
ney. At this moment Marmont felt extremely em- 



190 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 

barrassed; he wondered how he could explain his 
conduct to the man with whom he had made an 
agreement that morning. His fellow-travellers took 
pity on him, and after they had got out of their car- 
riage, they covered him with their cloaks to prevent 
his being seen ; then they entered the castle of Petit 
Bourg. There they met first, the Prince of Wiirtem- 
berg, who spoke of Napoleon in the bitterest terms. 
Ney had formerly had this German Prince under his 
orders and had never spared him. He said to him : '' If 
there is a house in Europe that has no right to accuse 
the Emperor Napoleon of ambition, it is assuredly 
the house of Wiirtemberg." In fact, it was to the 
Emperor that the sovereign of this country owed his 
title of King, and it was to Napoleon's brother that 
he had given his daughter in marriage. Then Prince 
Schwarzenberg made his appearance, and while he 
treated the three plenipotentiaries most courteously, 
he manifested no interest in the regency of Marie 
Louise. When he heard that Marshal Marmont was 
in the carriage below, he desired to have a private 
talk with him.' " In this interview," says the Mar- 
shal, " I released myself from the arrangements we 
had made, explaining my motives to Prince Schwarz- 
enberg. The change in the general position of af- 
fairs would naturally make one in my conduct. My 
acts had been inspired by a desire to save my country, 
and since a measure undertaken in common with my 
comrades, and in concert with Napoleon, promised to 
attain this end, I could not hold myself aloof from it. 



THE DEFECTION OF ESSONNES. 191 

He understood me perfectly, and gave complete ap- 
proval to my plan." 

Then Marmont joined his colleagues, and they all 
pushed on, with their safe-conduct, and reaching 
Paris, April 5, at about 2 a.m., at once went to the 
residence of Talleyrand, in the rue Saint Florentin, 
where the Emperor Alexander was staying. All 
four, Ney, Macdonald, Caulaincourt, and Marmont, 
were immediately received by the Czar, who greeted 
them most courteously, saying that he had wanted 
to express to them the esteem and the admiration he 
felt for the bravery of the French army and for the 
skill of its commanders. He gave utterance to the 
most friendly feelings for France. " I desire," he 
added, "its happiness and security. It must be pow- 
erful and remain great." 

Then the plenipotentiaries pleaded with conviction, 
eloquence, and energy the cause of Marie Louise and 
of the King of Rome. Marmont, who the day before 
had been a Royalist, became once more a Bona- 
partist, and added his voice to theirs. "I was not," 
he says in his Memoirs, " the least ardent in defend- 
ing the rights of the son of Napoleon and of the 
Regent." The discussion was long and hot. The 
Emperor ended it by saying that he could not settle 
this important question alone, but had to refer it to 
his allies, and that he could give no answer before 
the morning. The plenipotentiaries preserved some 
hopes when they took leave of the Czar; and the 
Royalists, who feared nothing so much as the main- 



192 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

tenance of the Imperial dynasty, 6ould not conceal 
their anxiety. 

A fatal incident — a result of Marmont's conduct, 
though one for which he was not directly respon- 
sible — had just destroyed the last chances of the 
King of Rome, and made the restoration of the 
Bourbons inevitable. Marmont had merely planned 
the defection of Essonnes ; his generals had just 
carried it out. 

Scarcely had Marmont left Essonnes with the 
plenipotentiaries than an aide-de-camp of the Em- 
peror, Colonel Gourgaud, arrived there in great 
haste. This officer had been ordered by Napoleon 
to go first to the headquarters of the Duke of 
Ragusa, at Essonnes, and then to the headquarters 
of the Duke of Treviso, at Mennecy, to tell the two 
marshals that the Emperor summoned them to 
Fontainebleau to receive instructions. Doubtless 
Napoleon, who had abdicated only conditionally, — 
that is to say, in case the allied sovereigns should 
recognize his son's rights, and who, moreover, knew 
that they had declared, on the 31st of March, that 
they would not treat with him or with any member 
of his family, — attached but little importance to the 
mission undertaken by the Prince of Moskowa and 
the Dukes of Taranto and Vicenza. He believed 
that this mission had but few chances of being suc- 
cessful ; and if, as was probable, it failed, he still 
hoped to march on Paris with his guard, and the 
army corps of the Dukes of Ragusa and Treviso, to 



THE DEFECTION OF ESSONNES. 193 

make one last effort. Probably when he summoned 
the two Marshals, it was to arrange with them his 
plans. Moreover, anticipating Marmont's possible 
departure to Paris with the three plenipotentiaries, 
he had sent word that if the Marshal had left Es- 
sonnes, the senior general of the Sixth Corps, General 
Souham, should report in his place at Fontainebleau. 

When Colonel Gourgaud reached Essonnes with 
the Emperor's order, he expressed with some warmth 
his surprise at not finding Marmont. This made 
General Souham think that all was lost. He fancied 
that the Emperor had got wind of the negotiations 
that had taken place that morning between the 
Marshal and the enemy ; he recalled his warm adhe- 
sion to the proposed defection, and felt sure that 
Napoleon meant to punish him, possibly to have him 
shot. As a former officer of the army of the Rhine, 
and a friend of Moreau, General Souham had never 
loved the Emperor, and he feared him beyond all 
measure. It was this fear — most ungrounded; for 
Napoleon, who knew nothing of the events of the 
morning, had no cause for ill-feeling towards the 
general — that was the cause of the defection of 
Essonnes, and of the overthrow of the Empire. 

When Colonel Gourgaud had pushed on to find 
Marshal Mortier at Mennecy, General Souham, in- 
stead of going to Fontainebleau, as he had been 
ordered to do, expressed his terrors to the other 
generals, inspired them with the same alarm, and 
persuaded them not to wait for M^-rmont's return 



194 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

before carrying out the agreement made with Prince 
Schwarzenberg, to cross the Essonnes and to place 
themselves and their troops under the orders of the 
Provisional Government. It was in vain that Colonel 
Fabvier entreated General Souham not to form such 
a plan ; the only answer he got was : " It is better to 
kill the devil than to let him kill us." The generals 
called out their men, and sent word to the enemy 
lest they should be attacked on the way. The 
unhappy soldiers were ignorant of the reasons for 
this movement. All the previous negotiations about 
the defection had been carefully kept concealed from 
them. They imagined that their generals and the 
Marshal himself were still faithful to the Emperor, 
and when in the middle of the night they left 
Essonnes in pitchy darkness, and moved towards 
Paris, they felt sure that they formed the vanguard 
of the Imperial army and were about to fight once 
more. Colonel Fabvier was not with them. Indig- 
nant with the conduct of his superiors, whom he had 
in vain tried to recall to their duty, he had just 
galloped away to find Marshal Marmont and tell him 
what was going on. 

Meanwhile the soldiers began to form some notion 
of the part they were thus forced to play, and their 
suspicions grew at every step. When they saw the 
allied troops peaceably lining the road, letting them 
pass by without firing a shot, they were almost cer- 
tain that some treachery was on foot. The scouts, 
who were Poles, exclaimed : " We are deceived ; we 



THE DEFECTION OF ESSONNES. 195 

are surrendered to the enemy. We will not betray the 
Emperor," and they refused to go. The rear-guard, 
commanded by General Chastel, had not reached the 
enemy's lines at sunrise. On seeing them, it sud- 
denly turned back to Essonnes, and set about putting 
the bridge into a state of defence. General Lucotte's 
division, which was occupying Corbeil, had received 
orders to follow the movement of the Sixth Corps, 
but it did not stir : the general, in an order of the 
day, said that having been ordered to occupy Corbeil, 
he should remain at his post with his men. These, 
with the rear-guard commanded by General Chastel, 
were the only troops of the Sixth Corps who kept 
their position. The ill-fated movement went on. 
Some officers, who favored the defection, invented a 
number of pretexts to deceive the men and to allay 
their suspicions, but there Avere murmurs throughout 
the column ; already they had begun to speak of 
treason. When they reached Belle Epine, the troops 
left the road to Paris, to take that to Versailles, and 
it was plain that they would soon be in open revolt 
against their chiefs. 

What was Marshal Marmont doing while his sol- 
diers were thus deceived by their generals? After 
leaving Talleyrand's house in the middle of the night, 
he had gone to his own, in the rue du Paradis Pois- 
sonniere, to take a little rest before rejoining his 
colleagues in the morning at the house of the Prince 
of Moskowa, to return with them to the Emperor 
Alexander, before whom they were once more to 



196 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

plead the cause of Marie Louise and of the King of 
Rome. His conscience had been relieved of a heavy 
burden. This defection, he said to himself, had been 
only a plan not put into execution, and he would do 
his duty to tlie end, vying in loyalty with Ney, 
Macdonald, and Caulaincourt, to save, if not Napo- 
leon, at least the Imperial dynasty. Calm had at 
length taken possession of him, and he was sitting, 
buried in thought, before the fire, a mirror in front 
of him, his elbows on his knees, his head between his 
hands, when a door was suddenly opened. Then, 
raising his head, he saw in the glass the face of 
Colonel Fabvier, who was coming into the room. 
"What, you, Fabvier?" exclaimed the Marshal. 
"Ah! I am lost." "And disgraced too," replied the 
Colonel. "What is to be done?" asked the Duke 
of Ragusa. " Hasten to your divisions, and stop the 
defection. Perhaps you still have time." "Yes, 
yes, but first I have promised to go back to see the 
Emperor Alexander ; come here in an hour with my 
horses and wait for me. I shall leave soon, and we 
will go together." 

Marmont went at once to Marshal Ney's, finding 
there his colleagues about to leave for Talleyrand's 
residence, where the Czar had promised to receive 
them at nine o'clock. The Duke of Ragusa told them 
what his generals had done. " Oh ! " he said, " I 
would give my arm, if only this news were not true I " 
" Say your head," answered Marshal Ney, " and it 
would not be enough ! " 



THE DEFECTION OF ESSONNES. 197 

When they reached Talleyrand's house, Marmont 
and his colleagues saw the enthusiastic delight of the 
Royalists, who regarded the defection of the Sixth 
Corps as the sure token of the restoration of the 
Bourbons. They knew that it would destroy the last 
scruples of the Emperor Alexander, and that now the 
chances of the King of Rome were irrevocably gone. 
They greeted Marmont as a benefactor and covered 
him with praise; they swore to him that Louis 
XVIII. would express his gratitude by magnificent 
rewards ; they were rapturous with delight. But 
suddenly their great joy was troubled: word came 
that at Versailles the Sixth Corps, convinced of the 
treachery of its commanders, was in open revolt. 
The Royalists were in consternation. The Emperor 
Alexander, who was but a cool supporter of the Bour- 
bons, might perhaps say that the army remained faith- 
ful to Napoleon ; the Royal ship might yet founder 
just outside of its port. Hence they surrounded 
Marmont and tried everything — prayers, promises, 
flattery — to decide him to put a stop to this out- 
break, which filled them with terror and threatened 
to undo everything. Marmont let himself be per- 
suaded, and started for Versailles. Just as he was 
leaving Talleyrand's house, he saw Colonel Fab- 
vier, who had been waiting for him at the door 
more than an hour. The Marshal was much upset 
by all he had been through, and he tried in vain 
to collect himself. His lips wore a pained smile. 
" Thank you," he stammered to the Colonel ; " I 



198 THE INVASION OF 18U. 



have no need of you. It is all arranged; there is 
nothing more to do." 

Meanwhile, the troops of the Sixth Corps had been 
in open revolt since reaching Versailles. Their gen- 
erals, whom they denounced as traitors, had been 
compelled to flee for their lives. The colonels, after 
a brief deliberation, had thrown in their lot with the 
soldiers, and had determined to lead the troops to 
Rambouillet and thence to Fontainebleau, to place 
them once more under Napoleon's orders. 

" I went to Versailles," Marmont said in his Me- 
moirs, " to review my troops and to explain to them 
the new state of affairs ; but hardly had I started, 
when news came of this revolt. The soldiers cried 
out that they were betrayed. The generals had fled, 
and the troops were preparing to return to Napoleon. 
They could not have marched two leagues without 
encountering an overwhelming force. I deemed it 
my duty to bring them back to discipline and obedi- 
ence ; in a word, to save them. I pushed on, and at 
every quarter of a league received most alarming 
messages. At last I reached the gate of Versailles 
and found all the generals assembled, but the army 
was on its march towards Rambouillet. When I had 
announced to the generals my intention of joining 
the troops, they did their best to prevent me. Gen- 
eral Compans said to me : ' Don't do it. Marshal ; 
the men will fire at you.' ' You may stay, gentle- 
men,' I said, 'if you care to do so. As for me, I am 
decided ; either I am a dead man in an hour, or I shall 



THE DEFECTION OF ESSONNES. 199 

have made my authority recognized.' Thereupon I 
followed the column at a certain distance. There 
were a great many drunken soldiers, and they had to 
be given time to recover their reason." 

Then the Marshal sent an aide to look at the 
troops. He reported on his return that they were no 
longer shouting, but marching in silence. Another 
•officer was sent on to announce the Marshal's speedy 
arrival. This filled the men with a false joy. They 
thought Marmont was still faithful to the Emperor, 
and when they saw him they imagined that he was 
coming to help 'them out of the plight into which 
their generals had brought them. They felt sure 
that the man hastening towards them was a friend 
of Napoleon. 

A third aide carried orders from the Marshal to 
his soldiers, commanding them to halt, and to the 
officers to assemble in detachments on the left of 
the corps. " The order was obeyed," says Marmont, 
" and I arrived. I dismounted, and formed a circle 
of the officers of the first group I came to. I asked 
them how long they had been authorized to distrust 
me. I asked them if in times of privation I had not 
been the first to suffer, and in danger and peril the 
first to expose myself. I reminded them of what I 
had done for them, and of the many proofs of attach- 
ment I had given them. I spoke Avith emotion, with 
warmth, with feeling. It was said that an attempt 
had been made to surrender them, to get possession 
of their arms ; but were not their honor and their 



200 THE INVASION OF 18U. 

safety as clear to me as my own honor and my own 
life ? Were they not my dearly loved family ? The 
hearts of these old comrades melted, and I saw many 
of these weather-beaten, scarred faces bedewed with 
tears. I was myself deeply moved." 

In his Memoirs Marmont speaks of this incident 
as a great personal triumph. He says enthusias- 
tically : " Oh, what power belongs to a chief worthy 
of his soldiers, after he has endured with them all the 
varying chances of war, and how clumsy he must be 
to lose it ! I repeated my discourse before each group 
of officers, and told them to carry my words to the 
soldiers. The whole corps seized their arms, and, 
with shouts of ' Long live the Marshal ! Long live 
the Duke of Ragusa ! ' started for the quarters I had 
assigned them near Mantes. It would be hard for 
me to express all the satisfaction I felt at this com- 
plete success. It was my own work, the result of 
the ascendancy which I had well earned over troops 
whose toils I had so long shared." 

These jDoor, brave soldiers were deceived to the 
last. They were convinced that peace had been 
made, and that they were longer free to shed their 
blood in behalf of their Emperor. This, moreover, 
was made impossible. The Allies had just placed 
an impassable obstacle between the Sixth Corps and 
Fontainebleau. All was over. 

Posterity has not shared the approbation which 
the Duke of Ragusa has expressed for himself in this 
matter. Thiers says : " It is not to be forgotten that 



THE DEFECTION OF ESSONNES. 201 

Marmont was the recipient of Napoleon's personal 
confidence ; that he was under arms, and held at 
Essonnes a post of very great importance. Now to 
abandon this position, with his whole army corps, 
in accordance with a secret convention with Prince 
Schwarzenberg, was not the choice of a free citizen 
between two forms of government; it was conduct 
like that of a soldier who deserts to the enemy. 
Marmont has pretended that he was guilty of only a 
part of this ; and it is true that, after designing and 
beginning it, he stopped half-way in alarm. His 
generals, led by a groundless terror, took up the 
interrupted action, and finished it on their own 
account ; but Marmont, by accepting what they had 
done, assumed the whole responsibility, and in the 
eyes of posterity must bear this burden." 

General de S^gur, in his Memoirs, speaks thus of 
the affair : "A melancholy ending of a justly famous 
warrior ! For Marmont possessed every quality, — a 
military bearing, nobility of soul, of manner, of face, 
a varied education, much intelligence, and an ardent 
imagination. Being always eager for glory, he hero- 
ically risked all that it brings, with the same con- 
tempt for danger that he showed twenty- two years 
earlier, when he had it all to earn with his sword. 
But pride, which was greater than his glory, proved 
his ruin. His fall was all the greater because he fell 
after the most heroic action of his life, possibly of 
the whole war." 

When Marmont returned to Talleyrand's house, 



202 THE INVASION OF 181 4. 

after allaying the insurrection, he became aware of 
what he had done by simply seeing who they were 
who congratulated him: they were all the bitterest 
personal enemies of the Emperor. Bourrifenne thus 
describes the ovation that welcomed the Marshal: 
" Fifteen years have passed, yet the scene is distinct 
before me. All had finished dinner ; he sat down at 
a little round table in the middle of the hall, and 
there he was served. Every one of us went up to 
talk Avith him and compliment him. He was the 
hero of the day." 

Alas, he paid dearly for his appearance as a hero ! 
All these things were, in his words, "the source of 
keen anguish." Remorse tormented him as long as 
he lived. In vain did the Restoration heap honors 
on him. At the last moment he was the evil genius 
of the Bourbons, as he had been in 1814 of the 
Emperor. The days of July were no less lamentable 
than the defection of Essonnes. July 28, 1830, he 
saw once more the banker Laffitte, who had done 
him so much harm in the night of March 30, 1814 ; 
and Laffitte, under the pretext of stopping bloodshed, 
was to debauch the soldiers. And Marmont ruined 
the legitimist monarchy as he had ruined the Empire. 
Then, beaten by the Parisian insurrection, he arrived 
at Saint Cloud, and said to the unfortunate Charles 
X. : "Sire, the battle is lost. A ball, fired at me, 
killed the horse of one of my officers at my side. I - 
am sorry it did not go through my head. Death 
would be preferable to what I have just seen." And 



THE DEFECTION OF ESSONNES. 2{)'6 

from the Duke of Angouleme he received bitterer 
reproaches than from Napoleon. He ended his stormy 
career in exile, and in the castle of Schonbrunn he 
gave lessons in strategy to another exile, a young 
man as ill-starred as himself, who had been the King 
of Rome, and later was merely the Duke of Reich- 
stadt. 



XVI. 



THE SECOND ABDICATION. 



WE left Napoleon at Fontainebleau, April 4, 
1814, just when Ney, Macdonald, and Cau- 
laincourt were leaving to take to Paris his condi- 
tional abdication. The Emperor, at that moment, 
seemed depressed and discouraged, but a night's good 
rest restored him, and when he awoke he was far 
from thinking that his career was finished. He 
hoped either that the plenipotentiaries would induce 
the Allies to accept his son's reigning, with Marie 
Louise as Regent, which would be at least a con- 
solation, or that the Allies, by declining it, would 
thereby render his abdication null and void. In this 
second case, which was, perhaps, what he preferred, 
he expected to be able to resume the conflict. Imag- 
ining himself still covered by the line of the Essonnes, 
and by the army corps of Marmont and Mortier, and 
still counting on the devotion of those of Macdonald, 
Oudinot, and Gerard, he hoped to have time to 
receive the very desirable re-enforcements due from 
the armies of Lyons, of Italy, and of Spain. 

It was in this state of mind that, in the morning 
204 



I 



THE SECOND ABDICATION. 205 

of April 5, he was still forming plans of revenge. 
Hence it is easy to conceive of his grief and surprise 
when he got woi'cl of the defection of the Sixth 
Corps. All his plans were at once overthrown. 
General Chastel, when he drew back to the bridge 
of Essonnes, sent an officer to inform him of the dis- 
astrous decision of the other generals of Marmont's 
corps. At almost the same moment Napoleon re- 
ceived a draft of the agreement which this Marshal 
had concluded with Prince Schwarzenberg, and the 
Allies had speedily published. At first the Emperor 
refused to believe it. Marmont, the friend of his 
boyhood, his fellow-student, his aide-de-camp in the 
first Italian campaign, should have been the man to 
remain to the last faithful to his sovereign, to his 
friend ! When at last he was obliged to yield to the 
evidence. Napoleon said only, '•^ Ungrateful man ; he 
will be unhappier than I ! " 

A clause of the agreement concluded between 
Marmont and Schwarzenberg spoke of confining the 
Emperor, if he should be captured, within certain 
limits, in a territory chosen by the Allies and the 
French government. This condition, the work of 
the plotter of the defection of Essonnes, insulted the 
Emperor both as commander-in-chief and as sover- 
eign. The acceptance of such a favor from the hands 
of a man who had betrayed him, seemed the deepest 
of humiliations. This last drop filled the cup of 
bitterness to overflowing. 

Napoleon had just read the resolutions of the Pro- 



206 THE INVASION OF ISI4. 

visional Government and of the Senate ; he was 
aware of the invectives, the denunciations, which dis- 
honored not him, but those who uttered them, and 
his heart was full. Abandoned by fortune, the hero 
of so many battles gathered himself together, and in 
an order of the day, addressed to his army, thus 
expressed his grief. 

This paper, so full of dignified sorrow, begins with 
a calm reference to Marmont's conduct : " Fontaine- 
bleau, April 5, 1814. The Emperor thanks the army 
for the devotion it exhibits to him, and especially for 
recognizing that France is in him, and not in the 
people of the capital. The soldier follows the good 
or evil fortune of his general ; his honor is his relig- 
ion. The Duke of Ragusa has not inspired his fel- 
low-soldiers with this feeling; he has gone over to 
the Allies. The Emperor cannot approve of the con- 
ditions under which he has taken this step ; he can- 
not accept life and liberty from the mercy of a 
subject." 

Napoleon went on to speak of the Senate, which 
had just voted his dethronement. Even Chateau- 
briand, the most eloquent of Royalists, has expressed 
his disgust with their cynical recantations : " Can 
one imagine the Emperor reading the official docu- 
ment at Fontainebleau ? What must he have thought 
of what he had done, and of the men he had made his 
accomplices in the oppression of our liberties ? When 
I published my pamphlet, Bonaparte and the Bour- 
bons, could I have expected to see it expanded and 



THE SECOND ABDWATION. 207 

turned into a decree of dethronement by the Senate ? 
What prevented those legishitors, in the days of pros- 
perity, from detecting the evils of which they charged 
Napoleon Avith being the author, from seeing that the 
Constitution was violated ? What zeal was suddenly 
seizing these mutes for the liberty of the press? 
How could those who had loaded Napoleon with 
honors on his return from the wars, now find that he 
had waged them only 'in the interest of his unbounded 
ambition ' ? How could those who had ever supplied 
him with conscripts, now suddenly be moved by the 
fate of wounded soldiers, ' without aid, or nursing, or 
food ' ? When I ask what Napoleon at Fontainebleau 
thought of those resolutions of the Senate, his answer 
is already made." And this answer is contained in 
the order of the day of April 5, 1814, of which we 
have quoted the beginning. 

"The Senate," Napoleon says, "has presumed to 
dispose of the government of France, forgetting that 
it owes to the Emperor the power it now abuses ; 
that it is the Emperor who saved some of its mem- 
bers from the storms of the Revolution, and raised 
the rest from obscurity and protected them from the 
hatred of the nation. The Senate relies upon the 
articles of the Constitution to overthrow the Consti- 
tution itself ; it does not blush to denounce the Em- 
peror, without noticing that as the first body of the 
State, it has taken part in everything that has hap- 
pened. It has gone so far as to dare to accuse the 
Emperor of altering its resolutions in their publi- 



208 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

cation. Every one knows that he had no need of 
such devices. A sign was a command for the Senate, 
which always did more than was asked of it. The 
Emperor has always been open to remonstrances of 
his Ministers, and in this circumstance expected of 
them the most unlimited justification of the measures 
he had taken. If enthusiasm has found expression 
in the public addresses and speeches, the Emperor 
has been deceived. But those who have used this 
language ought to blame themselves for the con- 
sequences of their flatteries. The Senate is not 
ashamed to speak of the libels published against 
foreign government, it forgets that they were pre- 
pared in its halls ! So long as fortune smiled on 
their sovereign, these men were faithful, and no 
complaint was heard about the abuse of power." 

After these calm, dignified words to the Senate, 
Napoleon thus closed the order of the day : " If the 
Emperor had despised men, as he has been charged 
with doing, the world would acknowledge that he 
has had good grounds for his contempt. He held 
position from God and the nation ; they alone could 
deprive him of it ; he has always looked upon it as a 
burden ; and when he accepted it, it was under the 
conviction that he alone was able to carry it worthily. 
The happiness of France appeared to be bound up 
with the Emperor's destiny ; now that fortune has 
abandoned him, nothing but the will of the nation 
could persuade him to remain longer on the throne. 
If he must regard hinioelf as the last obstacle to 



THE SECOND ABDICATION. 209 

peace, he gladly makes this last sacrifice to France. 
He has consequently sent the Prince of Moskowa 
and the Dukes of Vicenza and Taranto to Paris to 
open negotiations. The army may be sure that the 
Emperor's honor will never be in conflict with the 
happiness of France." 

Meanwhile, the efforts of the three plenipotenti- 
aries had come to nothing. After the defection of 
Essonnes, the allied sovereigns no longer felt obliged 
to be gentle towards Napoleon. So long as he had 
been at the head of fifty thousand men within one 
day's march of Paris, military considerations had out- 
weighed many intrigues. Now that Fontainebleau 
was no longer a military position, on account of 
Marmont's conduct, the aspect of affairs was changed ; 
the time for softness had passed ; abdication in favor 
of the Regent and her son was no longer enough for 
a confident enemy, and the plenipotentiaries were 
told that Napoleon ought to renounce the throne, not 
merely for himself, but also for his dynasty. 

Alexander clothed this declaration in noble and 
courteous language. When the plenipotentiaries 
told him that their instructions commanded them to 
treat only of the affairs of France and not of those 
concerning Napoleon personally, he exclaimed, "I 
esteem him all the more for that." Then he added 
that he had forgotten all his grievances ; that his 
former friendship had revived at the sight of so 
much misfortune ; that he deplored the necessity of 
sacrificing to the peace of Europe such heroism as 



210 THE INVASION OF ISU. 

Napoleon's, of reducing such greatness to impotence. 
He promised that Napoleon should preserve the title 
of Emperor and the honors due his rank. He men- 
tioned the island of Elba, indicating the possibility of 
Napoleon's securing the sovereignty of that island. 
All this thoroughly disposed of the reign of Napo- 
leon II., and of the regency of Marie Louise. The 
plenipotentiaries had to return to Fontainebleau for 
further instructions, and they had to lose no time, 
for from one hour to another Napoleon's situation 
was growing darker, while that of the Bourbons was 
growing lighter; and any consolations that there 
was still a chance of his obtaining grew more uncer- 
tain every moment. 

In every quarter began to appear signs of deser- 
tion. As Baron Fain, the Emperor's devoted secre- 
tary says in his Manuscript of 1814 : " The struggle 
has been too long ; our energy is exhausted ; every 
one says openly. We have had enough. The only 
thought is to save what is left of our belongings after 
so many disasters. ... It is not weariness alone 
that has broken men's spirits. Every leader of im- 
portance has received from Paris conciliatory mes- 
sages and separate promises of peace. The new rev- 
olution is looked upon as an amalgamation of all 
French interests, to which but one interest — that of 
Napoleon — will be sacrificed. Every one, conse- 
quently, is hastening to Paris, where the new govern- 
ment welcomes all who abandon the old. Yet every 
one is reluctant to be the first to desert Napoleon. 



TUE SECOND ABDICATION. 211 

But, they ask, why does he delay so long to leave his 
adherents free ? There is much complaint about his 
delays, his indecision, and the desperate plans he is 
still forming. 

*' Since Napoleon's fortune changed," Baron Fain 
continues, " he is thought to commit nothing but 
blunders, and already new-fledged strategists are sur- 
prised that they have so long taken him for their 
master. Finally, little by little, every one has chosen 
his party. One goes to Paris because he is summoned 
thither; another, because he must look after the 
interests of his branch of the service or of his corps ; 
another, to get some money; still another, because 
his wife is ill. There is no lack of good reasons, and 
every man of the least importance who is not in Paris 
has some one there to represent him." Soon the 
Palace of Fontainebleau was to be a mere solitude ; 
the setting sun was at Fontainebleau, the rising sun 
at Paris. 

When Ney, Macdonald, and Caulaincourt arrived in 
the evening of April 5 to inform the Emperor of the 
failure of their mission, they found him calm and dig- 
nified, blaming neither men nor things, nor yet con- 
fessing to despair. When they told him that the 
principal cause of the trouble was the conduct of the 
generals of the Sixth Corps, he answered calmly: 
"Doubtless, I decided them. I summoned Marmont; 
they imagined themselves discovered, and in their 
remorse, terror did the rest." When he heard that 
that the allied sovereigns proposed to give Corsica or 



212 THE INVASION OF I8I4. 

something else, he exclaimed : " Oh, Corsica, without 
doubt. They must have been afraid of the nickname, 
which they do not dare to pronounce, they have so long 
used it as an insult." Their talk was brief. The 
Emperor asked if he should find in Elba an inhabi- 
table house, and ordered competent officers sent out 
to find out about the island. Then he dismissed the 
two marshals, promising to inform them the next 
morning of his decision. 

Marshal Ney, on leaving the Emperor, hastened to 
write to Talleyrand this letter, which was published 
in the Moyiiteur : — 

'' Fontainebleau, April 5, 11.30 p.m. My Lord: 
I went yesterday to Paris with the Marshal, the 
Duke of Taranto, and the Duke of Vicenza, in- 
vested with full powers to defend before His 
Majesty the Emperor the interests of the dynasty 
of the Emperor Napoleon. An unforeseen event 
having broken off the negotiations, which seemed 
to promise the happiest result, I saw that to save 
our beloved country from the awful evils of civil 
war, nothing was left to Frenchmen but to embrace 
fully the cause of our former king. Possessed 
by this feeling, I visited Napoleon this evening to 
express to him the wishes of the nation. The Em- 
peror, convinced of the critical position in which he 
has placed France, of the impossibility of his saving 
it, appeared to be resigned and to consent to com- 
plete, unrestricted abdication. I am in hope that' 
to-morrow morning he will hand me the formal and 



THE SECOND ABDICATION. 213 

authentic document to this effect. I shall at once 
have the honor of calling on Your Most Serene High- 
ness." 

Napoleon spent the night of the 5th in reflection. 
He weighed from a military point of view the last 
chances that yet remained. He thought of Marshal 
Soult's fifty thousand men under the walls of Tou- 
louse, of the fifteen thousand whom Marshal Suchet 
was bringing back from Catalonia, of the thirty 
thousand under Prince Eugene, of the fifteen thou- 
sand of Augereau's army thrown back on the Ce- 
vennes by the loss of Lyons, of the numerous gar- 
risons on the frontier, of General Maison's army. 
He counted over what was left of the troops near 
Fontainebleau — the army corps of Mortier, Oudi- 
not, Macdonald, Gerard — and his faithful Imperial 
Guard, still devoted, heroic, and ardent. If all the 
marshals, all the generals, all the officers, shared 
the feelings of the guard, everything might be saved. 
But were there not germs of defection? Had not, 
too, the Allies established a sort of blockade about 
Fontainebleau, which was closing in every hour? 
Their troops were crowding every road. A Russian 
army lay between Essonnes and Paris, another lay on 
the right bank of the Seine from Melun to Monte- 
reau. Other corps were marching towards Orleans 
and Chartres ; still others were spreading out by the 
roads of Champagne and Burgundy, between the 
Yonne and the Loire. It was barely possible to 
withdraw to that river and there to organize a line 



214 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

of defence ; but would not that be a signal for civil 
war ? Would not France be divided into two camps 
under two flags ? Would not the great Emperor be 
merely the head of a party? In spite of all these 
objections, he listened only to his own inclinations, 
to his warlike ardor, and wished to continue the 
struggle ; but would he be followed? 

All these thoughts tormented Napoleon through- 
out the night. When morning came, he summoned 
his marshals, and tried in vain to inspire them with 
his own energy. He spoke of retiring on the Loire. 
They argued that this would mean civil war. " Well," 
he answered, "since I must abandon the defence of 
France, does not Italy offer me a worthy retreat? 
Will you follow me there? Let us march to the 
Alps ! " This proposition was greeted with perfect 
silence. As Baron Fain, an eye-witness, says: "Oh! 
if Napoleon had only dashed from that room into the 
hall crowded with lower officers, he would have 
found young men eager to follow him ! a few steps 
further, and he would have been received at the foot 
of the staircase by the cheers of his soldiers ! Their 
enthusiasm would have restored his hopes ! But 
Napoleon succumbed to the habits of his reign ; he 
fancied that he would be lowering himself if he were 
to march without the high officers given him by the 
crown ; it seemed to him that General Bonaparte 
could not begin his career anew without the band of 
his old lieutenants ; and he had just observed their 
silence." 



THE SECOND ABDICATION. 215 



At the Palace of Fontainebleau, in the Abdication 
Room, with its two windows looking out on the mel- 
ancholy Garden of Diana, stands a little mahogany 
table which attracts more attention than all the 
sumptuous furniture around it. Imagine Napoleon 
seated before it, unable to make up his mind to sign 
the fatal paper without a final, heart-breaking effort. 
With one touch of the pen to sweep away the colos- 
sal edifice of power and majesty ! to wipe out the 
results of so many heroic sacrifices! Thus to finish 
the splendid drama ! What ! no more eagles, no tri- 
colored flag, no Empire, no Empress, no King of 
Rome ! Nothing, actually nothing, left ! It is easy 
to understan'd why, merely in writing the lines, his 
hand trembled as if palsied. Napoleon wrote merely 
the draft, of which Baron Fain made a copy, and this 
he signed. The original draft is in existence ; it is 
barely legible, and looks as if written in cabalistic 
characters. There are two insertions ; one consists 
of these words: "for himself and for his children," 
words that cost the unhappy father much anguish ; 
the other : " faithful to his oath." 

The document runs thus : " The Allied Powers hav- 
ing proclaimed that the Emperor was the sole obstacle 
to the re-establishment of peace in Europe, the Em- 
peror, faithful to his oath, declares that he renounces 
for himself and for his children, the thrones of France 
and Italy, and that there is no sacrifice, even that of 
his life, which he is not ready to make for the inter- 
ests of France." 



216 THE INVASION OF 1814, 

What an agony it was for the unhappy sovereign 
to face those men, the sight of whom was a mute 
reproach ; to stand before the honest Caulaincourt, 
whose excellent counsels he had not been wise 
enough to listen to ; the marshals, who would remain 
in command of French army corps, while he, the 
Emperor, would perhaps no longer have a battalion 
under his orders ! What a torture for him whose 
slightest whim had been like the irrevocable decrees 
of Fate, to have to obey their repeated, almost inso- 
lent demands ! and then to sign his own dethrone- 
ment, in the palace where he had once been so splen- 
didly powerful, within two steps from the throne ! 
Napoleon stood up, cast one last glance at his lieu- 
tenants, and said : " You want repose ; take it ! Alas ! 
you do not know what griefs and perils await you on 
your beds of down. A few years of this peace for 
which you pay so dear will do away with more of 
you than would the most desperate war.'* Then sit- 
ting down again, he seized his pen and wrote his 
signature. 



XVII. 

THE empress's ANGUISH. 

WHILE Napoleon was abdicating at Fontaine- 
bleau, Marie Louise was at Blois, where she 
had been since April 2, though the government she 
had established there was but a mere phantom of 
power. Palm Sunday, April 3, the Empress received 
the authorities of the city, after mass ; there were no 
speeches in view of the state of affairs, but the Em- 
press, accompanied by her son, walked from one to 
another, with a few words to each, beginning with 
the clergy. Her face was sad, although as one of the 
ladies present, the widow of General Durand, records, 
she was still in ignorance of all that had happened 
in Paris ; the decision of the Provisional Government, 
the decree of the Senate, had not yet come to her 
ears ; newspapers were kept from her ; the Bourbons 
were never mentioned before her ; hence she foresaw 
nothing worse than that Napoleon would be forced to 
make peace on such conditions as might be imposed 
upon him. She was very far from imagining that 
the Emperor of Austria desired to dethrone his son- 
in-law, and to deprive his grandson of a throne which 
seemed to await him. 

217 



218 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

The next day, the Empress had gloomier forebod- 
ings. We have said that in the evening of April 3, 
Napoleon, after the sort of altercation that he had 
had with Marshal Ney, which was one of the main 
causes of his abdicating the next day, had charged 
the Baron de Meneval, by a letter in cipher, to pre- 
pare Marie Louise to make use of her father and 
Metternich to confirm her rights to the Regency, 
adding that even this might fail ; that in that case, 
anything, even his own death, might be possible, and 
that then there would be no other course left open to 
the Empress than to go with her son to throw herself 
into the arms of the Emperor of Austria. 

This letter filled the faithful official with the keen- 
est anxiety. Napoleon's allusion to his possible death 
seemed to foretell suicide, and matters must indeed 
be in a terrible state when a man of iron, like the 
Emperor, could use such language. M. de Meneval, 
without informing Marie Louise of all his fears, urged 
her to write a letter of entreaty to her father, and 
the Empress at once followed his advice. Von Hel- 
fert, in his admirable book about Marie Louise, prints 
this letter in German. It runs thus : — 

" Blois, April 4, 1814. My deab Father : I send 
the Duke of Cadore to you to describe our wretched 
plight. I beg of you to be good enough to receive 
him. I have confided everything to him, and he can 
tell you better by word of mouth than I can write. 
Our position is so gloomy and alarming that my son 
and I have no other refuge than with you. I am 



THE EMPRESS'S ANGUISH. 219 

sure that at this moment you alone can aid us. I am 
convinced that you will listen to my prayer and will 
refuse to sacrifice to England and Russia my peace 
and the interests of your grandson. I know that 
the Duke of Vicenza went to Paris in order to nego- 
tiate, and that the Emperor Alexander refused to re- 
ceive him." The Empress was mistaken, for the Czar 
had never refused to receive the Duke of Vicenza. 

She went on : "I am sure that in this critical 
position, the Emperor will make every sacrifice to 
give his people peace and rest. Paris would have 
been defended more seriously if it had not been 
thought that it was attacked by you and that you 
would not abandon your daughter and your grandson. 
Hence I entrust myself to your hand, dear father ; I 
am sure that you will save us from this terrible situ- 
ation. I send the Duke of Cadore from my present 
refuge. My health suffers from all these trials; it 
becomes worse every day, and I am sure you would 
not wish me to live long in this cruel anxiety. Once 
more, take pity on me. I entrust to you the safety 
of what I hold dearest in the world, a son too young 
to know sorrow and grief. I hope soon to have to 
thank you for the happiness and peace w4iich we shall 
owe to you. I kiss your hand and am your obedient 
daughter." 

The Duke of Cadore started from Blois with this 
letter, April 4, and in his absence the post of Secre- 
tary to the Regency was filled by the Count of Mon- 
talivet. The Duke of Cadore, a former ambassador 



220 THE INVASION OF I8I4. 

from France at Vienna, had been treated there with 
great kindness by the Emperor Francis, who had 
consented to be godfather to one of his children, and 
Marie Louise had thought that no one could better 
plead the cause of the King of Rome. 

The unhappy Empress was a prey to the liveliest 
anguish. The Baron de Meneval, an eye-witness of 
her grief, thus describes her distress : " Marie Louise 
at times expressed her regret at having left Paris, 
and spoke of her desire to join the Emperor. The 
opposing obstacles, the conflicting opinions of her 
suite, caused her to postpone the meeting, which was 
ever in her thoughts. Her anxiety was intense ; the 
violent emotions that had tormented her, her never- 
ending tears, her sleeplessness, had made her extremely 
nervous. She could form no notion of the passions 
agitating France. She continually recalled her fa- 
ther's assurances, and could not persuade herself that 
the Emperor of Austria would sacrifice her with her 
husband and her son. Meanwhile, what was happen- 
ing at Paris was about to shatter her illusion ; she 
was in despair, but she clutched, like a drowning man, 
at her father's love as the only means of safety. 
When she heard that the Emperor of Austria was 
not in Paris, she hoped that he would never give 
his consent to what had been done in his absence, 
and that his voice would be listened to." 

At that time the Empress's attitude was above all 
blame. The Duke of Rovigo, the Minister of Police, 
who happened to be at Blois with her, thus unre- 



THE EMPBESS'S ANGUISH. 221 

servedly eulogizes her in his Memoirs : " The Empress 
was in the greatest distress. She was in tears during 
the whole week she spent at Blois ; she had formed 
a wholly different opinion of the French. The 
malevolence of those who cast her from the throne 
has imputed to her lack of character, some of the 
misfortunes for which she was in no way to blame. 
If the Empress, instead of being a young woman un- 
der twenty-two, had been of an age at which confi- 
dence is reached by experience, and she had consented 
to listen to the advice of those in Avhom she trusted, 
things would probably have turned out very differ- 
ently ; but this was not the case : the Emperor had 
composed her suite, and she set the example of sub- 
mission. At home as in public she never neglected 
any of the rigorous rules imposed upon her j^outh, 
which made it impossible for her to have a private 
talk with any one except her appointed counsellors. 
I had the honor of seeing her very often at this 
painful moment, and became convinced of her devo- 
tion to the Emperor. She said to me one day: 
'Those who thought I should have stayed in Paris 
were right ; my father's soldiers perhaps would not 
have driven me away. What must I think when I 
see him allowingr' all that? ' " 

April 4, at 3 a.m., Joseph and Jerome, with the 
Duke of Feltre, Minister of War, left Blois, taking 
the road to Orleans, in order to ascertain whether it 
might not be well to establish the Regency there, 
where there would be easier communication with 



222 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

the Emperor. Joseph also meant to go to Fontame- 
bleau, to receive his brother's direct instructions, but 
the fear of capture by the enemies' troops caused 
him to abandon this project. A high officer of the 
Commissariat, Avho had been trying to rejoin Napo- 
leon, had been prevented by the arrival of a corps of 
the enemy, and on his way back had stopped at 
Orleans, at the hotel where happened to be the 
Minister of War. This functionary invited him to 
call on him, and in the presence of a third person, 
who was no other than King Jerome, asked him the 
most minute questions, to ascertain if it was possible 
to make his way to Fontainebleau. The manifest 
danger caused Joseph to abandon the plan, so he 
returned to Blois with Jerome, and wrote to the 
Emperor this letter : — 

''Blois, April 6, 1814. Sire: I went to Orleans 
day before yesterday in order to see Your Majesty 
for a few moments. I could get no further, on 
account of the arrival of a hostile corps which cut 
off all communication. M. de Cadore continued his 
journey. . . . We have had no letter since the 3d. 
A messenger announces a suspension of hostilities. 
I hope it will be followed by peace." 

Joseph and Jerome did not seem wholly discour- 
aged. They had sent before them to Blois the 
papers of the Ministry of War, and forty clerks with 
orders to work night and day at recruiting. Com- 
munication with many divisions was still open. New 
levies were talked about, as well as organizing unat- 



THE EMPRESS'S ANGUISH. 223 

tached corps in the departments occupied by the 
Allies. The Regency had sent to the prefects a 
circular in which recent events were thus described : — 

"The Emperor, who had transferred his head- 
quarters to Troyes, March 29, moved in forced 
marches through Sens towards his capital. His 
Majesty was at Fontainebleau, March 31 ; then he 
learned that the enemy, who had arrived twenty-four 
hours before the French army, occupied Paris, after 
a hot and bloody defence. The corps of the Dukes of 
Treviso and of Ragusa, and that of General Compans, 
which hastened to the defence of the capital, are 
united between Essonnes and Paris, where His Ma- 
jesty has taken up his position with the whole army 
arriving from Troyes. The enemy's occupation of 
the capital is a sore grief to His Majesty's heart, but 
it is no cause for alarm ; the presence of the Emperor 
with his army at the gates of Paris will restrain the 
enemy from their accustomed excesses, in so populous 
a city which it can only hold with great risk." 

This optimistic proclamation was not published in 
Blois ; for it was doubtless thought that it would not 
be received with favor in a town so near the scene of 
events. It was reserved for the remoter departments, 
and the prefects to whom it was sent were instructed 
to publish it with such comments as circumstances 
might make most suitable. These, for example, were 
the comments of the prefect of the dejDartment of 
Maine-et-Loire : "The Emperor is in good health, 
and watching over the safety of all. Her Majesty 



224 THE INVASION OF 1814. 



the Empress and the King of Rome are in safety. 
The Emperor's brothers, the high dignitaries, the 
Ministers, the Senate, and the Council of State are 
on the banks of the Loire, where the seat of the gov- 
ernment is temporarily established. Hence the power 
of the government will not be paralyzed ; good citi- 
zens, true Frenchmen, may be afflicted by the occu- 
pation of the capital, but they ought not to be 
alarmed; they should entrust to the Emperor's 
activity and to his genius the task of freeing us ! 
They should understand that in such a momentous 
occasion the national honor and a wise view of our 
interests command us to rally around our sovereign ! 
Let us aid his efforts and spare no sacrifice to put an 
end to this terrible struggle against enemies who, not 
content with fighting our armies, have struck a dead- 
lier blow at what every citizen holds most dear, and 
are ravaging this fair country, whose glory and pros- 
perity have always been the object of their jealous 
hatred. In spite of the successes obtained by the 
Army of the Coalition, which it will not long enjoy, 
the scene of war is still remote from you ; but if any 
marauders, led by hope of pillage, dare to appear in 
your territory, they will find you armed to defend 
your wives, your children, your property ! " 

At Blois this patriotic language would have pro- 
duced but little impression, because every one there 
was discouraged. Wednesday, April 6, arrived the 
Polytechnic School, the School of Saint Cyr, and 
that of Charenton, and the pages. A pamphlet 



THE EMPRESS'S ANGUISH. 225 

that appeared in 1814, entitled The Regency at 
Blois, or the Last Moments of the Imperial Govern- 
ment^ contains this passage : " The city of Blois was 
alread}^ full ; every inhabitant had shared his house, 
his room, or even given up his bed to his ncAv guests. 
These were polite, but there was dread of unpleasant 
ones, when it w\as proposed to establish two camps 
near Blois, and this news kept men's minds divided 
between the spectacle of the present and dread of 
the future, between surprise at the picture of the 
mutability of human affairs, as shown by this fugitive 
court, and the fear of an army which might be sum- 
moned to defend Blois, and might pay for its hospi- 
tality with all the horrors of war." 

Meanwhile, Marie Louise, at the head of her dim 
shadow of a government, kept up, until April 7, a 
faint hope. She had been persuaded to sign a proc- 
lamation Avhich was posted in Blois on the morning 
of that day ; it ran thus : " Frenchmen, the course of 
the war has put the capital in the hands of foreigners. 
The Emperor, who hastened to defend it, is at the 
head of his so often victorious armies. It is from 
the residence I have chosen and from the Emperor's 
Ministers that will be issued the only orders which 
you may obey. Every city in the enemy's power 
ceases to be free ; every order issuing thence is the 
language of the foreigners, or of one whom it suits 
their views to spread abroad. You will remain 
faithful to your vows ; you will listen to the voice 
of a princess entrusted to your fidelity, who glories 



22^' THE INVASION OF 1814. 

in being a Frenchwoman, and in sharing the des- 
tinies of the sovereign whom you have yourselves 
chosen. My son was less sure of your hearts in the 
days of our prosperity. His rights and his person 
are under your protection. [Signed] Marie Louise. 
[Countersigned] Montalivet, Secretary 2^^o tempore 
of the Regency." 

As the Baron de Meneval remarks, this proclama- 
tion, which was sent into every department which it 
could reach, and was the last official paper of the Re- 
gency, passed almost unnoticed. Since no one could 
foresee what might happen in twenty-four hours, the 
Ministers used to come to the palace in travelling- 
dress. 

That day, April 7, Marie Louise, from whom her 
suite, moved either by pity or the habit of flattery, 
concealed the bad news, was still ignorant of every- 
thing that had happened since her departure. One 
of her ladies, the widow of General Durand, who 
had remained in Paris, secured a passport and left 
on the 6th, reaching Blois on the 7th. She gave the 
Empress not only the documents entrusted to her, 
but also the resolutions of the Provisional Govern- 
ment, and all the newspapers. '' The Empress," she 
says in her Memoirs, "had been kept in such com- 
plete ignorance that she could scarcely believe what 
she read. . . . She was urged and entreated to 
return to Paris before a prince of the house of Bour- 
bon should arrive ; she was assured of the Regency 
for herself, and of the throne for her son, if she 



THE empress's ANGUISH. '' 227 



would consent; and her return would have been 
easy ; for the lady who brought the despatches had 
travelled alone in a post-chaise, with but one servant, 
and had not been called upon once to show her pass- 
port." For a moment Marie Louise thought of 
following Madame Durand's advice, but her suite dis- 
suaded her from a decision which the Emperor had 
not commanded, and which doubtless Avould have 
been taken too late to be of any service. 

The same da}^, April 7, Colonel Galbois, whom the 
Emperor had sent the day before from Fontainebleau, 
after making his way with great difficulty through 
the allied troops, presented himself before the Em- 
press. He thus describes his mission : " I reached 
Blois early ; the Empress received me at once. The 
Emperor's abdication surprised her greatly. She 
could not believe that the allied sovereigns had the 
intention of dethroning the Emperor Napoleon. ' My 
father,' she said, ' would not allow it ; he told me 
twenty times, when he placed me on the French 
throne, that he would always maintain me there, and 
my father is an honest man.' The Empress asked to 
be left alone to meditate on the Emperor's letter. 
Then I saw the King of Spain and the King of 
Westphalia. Joseph was deeply afflicted. Jerome 
was very violent against Napoleon. Marie Louise 
asked for me, and told me she wished to go to the 
Emperor. I told her this was impossible. Then Her 
Majesty asked me with some vivacity, ' Why so, 
Colonel ? You can do it ! My place is at the Em- 



228 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

peror's side when he is so unhappy. I desire to go to 
him, and I shall be happy anywhere provided I am 
with him.' I told the Empress what difficulty I had 
had in getting to Blois, and how much harder it 
would be to make my way back. Indeed, it was a 
very perilous journey. It was only Avith difficulty 
that the Empress was induced to change her mind ; 
but at last she decided to write. 

" I was able to reach the Emperor without being 
stopped. He read Marie Louise's letter with the 
utmost eagerness, and seemed much touched by 
the interest she showed. The Empress spoke of 
the possibility of collecting a hundred and fifty 
thousand men. The Emperor read the passage 
aloud, and said to me : ' Yes ; doubtless I could 
prolong the campaign, and possibly succeed ; but I 
should start civil war in France, and that I will not 
do. . . . Besides, I have signed my abdication, and 
I will not retract what I have done.' " 

It is certain that at this moment Marie Louise had 
no thought of abandoning Napoleon, but that she 
sincerely desired to join him. General de Segur 
blames her for not doing this at once ; and in his 
Memoirs expresses himself on this delicate subject : 
" Madame de Lugay, my mother-in-law, a lady of the 
bedchamber to Marie Louise, was a model of conjugal 
affection. Twice in the Terror she had saved her 
husband's life by imperilling her own, with the most 
devoted and most intelligent courage. Being en- 
dowed with the amiable and attractive virtues, as 



THE EMPRESS'S ANGUISH. 229 

well as with the notions of honor that distinguished 
the higher classes at the end of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, she had just secretly persuaded the Empress to 
go from Blois to Fontainebleau. Unfortunately, 
absolute secrecy was indispensable. Already the 
carriage that had been ordered was waiting for her 
at the foot of the staircase, when another person Avas 
announced, who had long had a most pernicious 
influence on Marie Louise's weak nature. The Em- 
press, who was much upset by this unexpected visit, 
sent her lady of the bedchamber into the next room, 
and from there my mother-in-law could hear only too 
w^ell with what perfidious art the generous and noble 
plan the Empress had just formed was changed into 
the saddest of desertions." 

Our own impression is that the Empress's conduct 
at this moment deserves no blame. Not only Napo- 
leon had not summoned her to his side ; he was not 
anxious to see her. It would have pained him to 
have her see him at Fontainebleau, already almost 
deserted, with but a mockery of a court and a phan- 
tom of power left. Early in the year, in spite of his 
disasters, he was still a monarch at the Tuileries ; he 
Avas the ruler of all France, and of France with 
natural frontiers. Now he was not even King of 
Fontainebleau ; his Empire did not extend beyond 
the palace gate. He would have suffered at seeing 
the little King of Rome shorn of his magnificent 
heritacfe, and more for his wife and son than for him- 
self. He could appear in his humiliation before his 



230 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

generals, but to appear before the daughter of the 
German Caesars, the woman who so recently shared 
with him the proudest throne in the Avorld, who had 
made so imposing an entry into the Tuileries only 
four years before, and there had lived amid unheard-of 
pomp and splendor, — that thought wrung his heart. 
Moreover, he was now contemplating suicide, which 
the presence of his wife w^ould have made impossible. 
His secretary. Baron Fain, confesses this : " Napo- 
leon, who dreaded this interview, wished to remain 
free for the plan he was considering." 

Meanwhile, Marie Louise's anxiety was telling on 
her health. She could not decide on what she ought 
to do. At one moment she felt sure that, in spite of 
all obstacles and arguments, it was her duty to go 
to her husband, even though he did not invite her; 
at the next, she imagined that it was better, not 
merely for her, but for her son, that she should go 
to her father, to plead, with all the eloquence she 
could command, the cause of what was left of the 
Empire. She ceased to expect anything from her 
brothers-in-law, who cared for nothing but saving the 
fragments of their fortune ; or from her councillors, 
most of whom had left her, while the others gave her 
uncertain and timid advice ; or from the nation, 
whose defection filled her with wrath. She remem- 
bered the heroic cry of the Hungarians : Moriamur 
pro rege nostro ! she had seen Austria loyal when its 
sovereign was unfortunate ; she did not forget the 
attitude of her father's subjects after Wagram ; the 



THE EMPRESS'S ANGUISH. 231 

obsequious flattery of Napoleon in the days of his 
success was still fresh in her ears, and she was indig- 
nant with what she heard of Paris, and with the 
insults and the selfishness of the Senate, of whose 
members Chateaubriand said, " The sordid effrontery 
of those Senators Avho, during the invasion of their 
country, never ceased to think of themselves, was 
striking, even when so important events were happen- 
ing. . . . The Provisional Government proscribed 
all the marks and emblems of Imperialism ; if the Arc 
de Triomphe had been in existence, it would have 
been destroyed; Mailhes, who was the first to vote 
for the death of Louis XVI., and Cambaceres, who 
first greeted Napoleon with the title of Emperor, 
hastened to express their allegiance to the Provisional 
Government." All these apostasies plunged the Em- 
press into despair. 

While Marie Louise still possessed the means, and 
was yet uncertain of what she might afterwards be 
able to do, she desired to reward the fidelity of her 
household, and of the troops who had loved her. She 
distributed among them sums amounting to two hun- 
dred and ninety-eight thousand francs. Soon after- 
wards every one left her to seek their fortunes else- 
where, and thus, as M. de Meneval says, was dis- 
persed in a few hours the Imperial household, which 
had been admired as an admirable organization. 

April 8, Good Friday, between eight and nine in 
the morning, Joseph and Jerome suddenly appeared 
before the Empress and told her that Blois was no 



232 THE INVASION OF ISI4. 

longer safe, that the allied troops were near, that at 
any moment she and her son might fall into their 
hands, and that consequently it was of the utmost 
importance to retreat from the Loire and establish 
the seat of government elsewhere. The carriages 
were ready, and they asked Marie Louise to take 
them at once with the King of Rome. 

The Empress, still trusting in her father, from 
whom she expected a speedy reply to her letters, was 
anxious to place herself under his protection, hence 
she declined this invitation. When they insisted, she 
summoned M. de Bausset, to whom she said, " Of all 
the officers of the Emperor's household here, you are 
my oldest acquaintance, for I knew you at Braunau 
at the time of my marriage. ... I count on your 
devotion, and will tell you what is going on here. . . . 
My two brothers and their archchancellor are there, 
in that room. They have just told me that I must 
leave Blois at once, and that if I resist, they will have 
me put into the carriage with my son." " May I ask 
Your Majesty," he replied, '' what is your wish ? " — 
" I wish to remain here and to await the Emperor's 
instructions." "If such is your desire, Madame, I 
venture to assure Your Majesty that all the officers 
of your household and of your guard will agree with 
me that we have to receive orders from you alone. 
I beg Your Majesty's permission to go and announce 
your intentions." — " Go, please, and then report to 
me." 

The Empress, says the Baron de M^neval, was 



THE EMPRESS'S ANGUISU. 233 

firm in her resolution not to leave Blois. Was her 
resistance due to her mistrust of her advisers, or to 
one thought which, in her agitation, completely con- 
trolled her ? All that she had been through of late 
had completely upset her, and she could not bear to 
think of moving again and of facing the perils of a 
flight to which she could see no end. 

Meanwhile, the first persons whom M. de Bausset 
met on leaving the Empress's room, were the Count 
d'Haussonville, Chamberlain, and General Caffarelli, 
the Emperor's aide-de-camp, the military commander 
of the palace. "Still affected by what I had just 
heard," he says in his Memoirs, " I hastened to repeat 
it to them. 'That cannot be tolerated,' said the 
Couit d'Haussonville, impetuously. With those 
words he hastened to the portico of the palace, where 
he fell aown ; but that did not prevent his shouting 
to all the officers of the guard who happened to be 
strolling and chatting in the courtyard while waiting 
for breakfast. They were at once aroused, and all 
agreed with us, and expressed a very warm desire to 
assure the Empress of their fidelity and devotion. I 
asked them for a few moments to inform the Empress 
of their wishes, and went into the inner rooms, ask- 
ing Her Majesty to see me for an instant, and she 
kindly came at once. I told her what was going on, 
and prepared her for the reception of this mani- 
festation. The Empress asked me to go back with 
lier into the drawing-room, and I complied with 
her request. 'M. de Bausset,' she said, 'repeat to 



234 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 

the Princes what you have just said to me.' I had 
the honor to tell the Empress that the officers of her 
household and those of her guard, having heard that 
it was intended to force her to leave Blois against 
her will, had declared that they would resist this, 
since they took their orders from her alone. ' Repeat 
the words they used,' King Joseph said to me. ' We 
must know just what their feeling is.' ' Their words 
would not be agreeable,' I replied; 'besides, the 
uproar in the next room will better convey them to 
Your Majesty.' 

" The words were hardly out of my mouth when the 
drawing-room doors were noisily burst open, and all 
the officers expressed simultaneously and enthusiasti- 
cally the feelings I had just announced in their name. 

" ' You must stay, Madame,' said Joseph, with great 
gentleness, turning towards the Empress. ' My propo- 
sition to Your Majesty seemed to me for your inter- 
est, but since you decide otherwise, I repeat, you 
must stay.' Everything resumed its usual tranquil- 
lity, and nothing more was said about her departure." 

M. de Bausset adds these reflections: "Various 
motives have been ascribed to the Princes, who per- 
haps hoped to prolong an unequal contest or to 
secure more favorable conditions. It is at least cer- 
tain that no one of us had approved the departure 
from Paris, and that we dreaded the consequences of 
a second flight. We were surrounded on all sides. 
Whither should we go? . . . Capture was inevi- 
table, hence it seemed best to succumb with dignity. 



THE EMPBESS'S ANGUISH. 235 

111 this circumstance the Empress acted alone, with- 
out consulting the Council, and according to her own 
feelings." 

The drama was drawing to the end desired by 
some, feared by others. The same day, Good Friday, 
April 8,1814, the Russian General Shouvaloff reached 
Blois at 2 P.M., and took up his quarters at the 
inn, la Galere. This officer, an aide of the Emperor 
of Russia, was accompanied by the Baron de Saint 
Aignan, Napoleon's Master of the Horse, and brother- 
in-law of the Duke of Vicenza. General Shouvaloff 's 
arrival Avas the signal for the departure of the princi- 
pal personages who had followed the Empress to 
Blois. He announced the reason of his coming, 
which was to conduct Marie Louise and her son to 
Orleans. 

Every one went to the mayor's office for passports, 
which then had to be signed by the Russian General. 
The inn at which he was staying was crowded all 
day long. It was too small to hold the applicants, for 
every one wanted to leave, and without delay. Those 
who could secure them, carried to the General letters 
of introduction ; he said when he received them that 
lie was full of regard for those who brought them ; 
but, his time being so short, he begged them to wait 
or to come again. " Most of the Ministers and Coun- 
cillors of State," says the Baron de Meneval, "left 
for Paris. I saw the Minister of War, who, with his 
usual smile, told me that he had just bidden farewell 
to his former colleague (he had been the secretary 



236 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

of the Cabinet), and had given him a letter for the 
Emperor, in which he took leave of him : he added 
that when one left people, it should be done politely ; 
that he had to give an account of the state of the war 
archives, of the store of maps, etc. ; ' that he didn't 
want to pass for a thief.' " 

The same day before dinner, the Empress sum- 
moned M. de Bausset, and said to him: "Do you 
want to do me another favor ? " — " Command me, 
Madame ; I am at your service." " Well, you will 
start for Paris this evening. You will doubtless find 
my father there, and you will give him a letter I am 
going to write. I hope to go there too, for I ought 
and I wish to be with him. Make your preparations 
and come back at eight this evening for my de- 
spatches." 

M. de Bausset goes on : "I punctually observed 
the Empress's commands, and she gave me two let- 
ters. Then I went to Count Shouvaloff, whom I had 
known very well at Erfurt during the intervicAV of 
1808. I found his rooms filled with people waiting 
to get their passports signed for their return to Paris. 
It must be said the higher officials regarded their 
task as completed as soon as the Commissioner of the 
Allied Powers arrived, and thought themselves free 
to look after their private interests. Count Shouva- 
loff recognized me, and came up to me in a most 
friendly way. We chatted together, and I told him 
the commands I had just received, asking him for a 
passport for Paris and thence to Fontainebleau, where 



THE EMPRESS'S ANGUISH. 237 

I should await the Empress. The Count then said 
to me in a low tone, that the Empress was not going 
there, and that it was decided that she should go to 
Rambouillet when she left Orl(ians. I was about to 
withdraw, but I became myself a person of impor- 
tance. Count Shouvaloff's amiability towards me 
made me the object of the warmest attention on the 
part of those who were most eager to leave." 

The night of April 8 was spent by the Empress and 
her suite in preparing for the departure the next day. 
Early the next morning M. de Meneval called upon 
her and found her very uneasy about the journey. 
She had the crown diamonds brought to her, but she 
did not know what to do with them. She was aware 
that she would encounter bodies of Cossacks and 
feared that her carriages would be plundered, and was 
inclined to wear her jewels, being confident that her 
person would be respected. There remained the Im- 
perial sword, in which the famous Regent diamond 
had been set ; the blade was in the way and M. de 
Meneval tried to break it off. Since he had no con- 
venient tool, he broke it off on one of the andirons, 
hid the handle under his clothes and went back to 
his carriage, trembling for the safety of his precious 
burden. It was ten in the morning. Marie Louise, 
in company with her son. Kings Joseph and Jerome 
and their wives, as well as Madame Bonaparte, left 
Blois and took the road to Orleans. There she found 
a double row of spectators lining the way, who gazed 
at her in sullen silence. 



XVIIL 

MARIE LOUISE AT ORLEANS. 

WHEN Marie Louise left Blois for Orleans, she 
was still escorted by cavalry of the Imperial 
Guard. The only disturbance on the way was in the 
outskirts of Beaugency, where the appearance of three 
hundred Cossacks caused some confusion. They 
plundered the last carriages, but the intervention of 
one of General Shouvaloff's aides-de-camp put a stop 
to the disorder, and everything that had been taken 
was returned. 

On her arrival at Orleans, the Empress was still 
treated as a sovereign. She entered that city, Saturday, 
April 9, at 6 p.m., and was met by the civil and military 
authorities. The National Guard and the troops of 
the garrison lined both sides of the way from the 
city gate to the bishop's palace, where she lodged. 
She was greeted with cries of " Long live the Empe- 
ror and Empress ! " "I was filled with sadness," 
says the Duke of Rovigo, "when T saw the city of 
Orleans filled with troops ; we had left still more at 
Blois, whither the supplies had been withdrawn from 
Versailles and Chartres. . . . Why had not all 
238 



MARIE LOUISE AT ORLEANS. 239 

these been added to the corps of Marshals Mortier 
and Marmont when they were defending Paris ? No 
other reason can be g-iven than that no one wished 
to do it ; yet there were certainly more than twenty 
thousand men. Add to this number the arsenal of 
Paris, and it is plain that there was a lack of either 
head or heart, and that the Emperor was ill-served in 
this respect." 

The city of Orleans was in a strange condition. 
After its gates were barricaded, its bridge manned, its 
walls equipped with artillery, it was suddenly crowded 
with the remains of the court, of the government, 
and of the army, with troops of every branch of the 
service who arrived without officers, and with officers 
who arrived without troops. The proclamation of 
the Empress Regent, signed at Blois, was still on the 
walls, but the Empire had vanished while the Mon- 
archy had not yet come. There was a sort of inter- 
regnum which threw a cloud over the next day, 
Easter Sunday, April 10. The Domine Salvum fac 
impe7'atorem was not sung, but neither was the Bomine 
Salvum fac regem. 

After mass, the Empress received the Duke of Ca- 
dore, who, as we have said, had left Blois April 4, 
with a letter from Marie Louise for the Emperor of 
Austria, and who was on his way back. The Duke 
of Cadore had been able to find Emperor Francis at 
Chanceaux, near Dijon, whither he had been led by 
Napoleon's movement on Saint Dizier; he had not 
entered Paris with the Emperor of Russia and the 



240 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 

King of Prussia. His daughter's hope that he could 
and would defend her and her son against the hos- 
tility of the two sovereigns of the north was vain, 
and the answer brought by the Duke of Cadore left 
her but little hope. The Emperor Francis, while he 
asserted his good will and his paternal love, expressed 
the fear that his allies would not share his zeal for the 
rights and interests of his daughter. 

Marie Louise was then still devoted to her hus- 
band. As she was crossing a terrace which separated 
her rooms from those of the King of Rome, she sud- 
denly went in and flung herself into the arms of 
Madame de Montesquiou, that clever and affectionate 
woman who was still the devoted governess of the 
Prince Imperial, and was all the more attached to the 
Empire because it was in distress. Marie Louise 
knew that this woman would give only generous and 
noble advice. She encouraged her in her desire to 
join Napoleon at Fontainebleau as soon as possible, 
but urged her to await the arrival of M. de Bausset, 
who had gone on with letters for her husband and 
her father. 

Then there occurred at Orleans an incident as 
painful for the Empress as it was disgraceful for the 
Provisional Government. When Marie Louise left 
Paris, she took with her what was left of Napoleon's 
personal treasury, consisting of eighteen million 
francs, and gold and silver ware. There were, 
besides, the crown diamonds. Of these eighteen 
millions, what was left of the Emperor's personal sav- 



MARIE LOUISE AT ORLEA^'S. 241 

ings, some millions had been sent to Fontainobleau 
to pay the troops or for the expenses of headquarters, 
and, by Napoleon's orders, Marie Louise had about 
two millions in her carriages, for her own use. There 
remained about ten millions in the wagons of the 
fleeing court. The Provisional Government was in 
need of money, and it conceived the notion of taking 
possession of these treasures, under the pretext that 
they were the property of the state, which was abso- 
lutely not the case. For making this seizure there 
was chosen a personal enemy of the Emperor, M. 
Dudon, whom Napoleon had been obliged to expel 
from the Council of State. 

M. Dudon, bearing an order from the Provisional 
Government dated April 9, went to Orleans and 
seized the treasures. Nothing was respected, neither 
the plate which was the Emperor's personal property, 
nor the snuff-boxes and diamond rings intended for 
presents. Napoleon's clothing and linen, even his 
pocket handkerchiefs marked Avith N and a crown, 
were taken. The emissary of the Provisional Govern- 
ment did not stop there ; he seized the scanty silver- 
ware intended for the service of the Empress and of 
the King of Rome, not leaving one silver dish; so 
that it Avas necessary to borrow dishes and even china 
from the bishop in whose house the Empress was 
staying, for the two days she spent in the city. Gen- 
eral Shouvaloff's aide, whose interference was solic- 
ited in vain, did not oppose the execution of the 
order. 



242 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

The crown diamonds were given up with scrupu- 
lous exactness according to the inventory. " There 
was lacking," said the Duke of Rovigo, "only the 
Regent^ which was generally kept separate on account 
of its great value, and the ease with which it could 
be taken. No one knew that the Empress was carry- 
ing in a workbag the handle of one of the Emperor's 
swords in which the precious jewel was set. When 
she was told what was going on, she at once took out 
the Regent^ and gave it up. Her own private dia- 
monds were with the others ; she did not even ask 
whether they had been taken." 

Easter Monday, April 11, the Empress again heard 
mass. Then she bade farewell to most of her suite, 
who were about to leave her forever. The parting 
was very sad. Marie Louise received each one in 
turn, and gave them presents of rings and jewelry, 
begging of them in touching language not to forget 
her. Her face was bathed with tears. A moment 
afterwards, all those who had left her came back 
into the room. They had heard that the Empress 
had been called to the throne of Parma, and they 
wanted to congratulate her ! A final irony of fate I 

The next day, Marie Louise was almost alone at 
Orleans. The bishop's residence bore no longer any 
likeness to a palace ; only two or three ladies were 
left with her and the King of Rome. Cambac^res 
had not got so far as Orleans ; at Blois he had taken 
the road to Paris, and without this customary adviser, 
the dethroned Empress was wholly under the iiiflu- 



MARIE LOUISE AT ORLEANS. 243 

ence of her maid of honor, the Duchess of Monte- 
bello, who desired nothing but tranquillity. Marie 
Louise's anxieties were boundless. The report that 
the Emperor wanted to kill himself came to her ears. 
M. Anatole de Montesquiou came to the palace on 
his way from Fontainebleau. " Well," asked Madame 
de Montebello, "is it over? Is he dead?" — "Who, 
Madame? Of whose death are you speaking?" 
" Why, of the Emperor's ; it was said that he had 
killed himself." — " No, Madame, he is not dead ; he 
is in the best of health ; could you believe the reports 
spread by his enemies ? Here is a letter he has charged 
me to hand to the Empress." 

An active correspondence had sprung up between 
the Baron de Meneval, who was at Orleans with 
Marie Louise, and Baron Fain, who was at Fontaine- 
bleau with Napoleon. M. Fain had sent word that 
every letter from him was dictated by Napoleon, from 
the first word to the last. A letter of April 10 said 
that according to letters received by the Emperor, 
Marie Louise seemed determined to go to see her 
father. " But," it went on, " does the Empress know 
where her father is ? Yesterday it was said that he 
was to be at Brie-Comte-Robert, and was to reach 
Paris to-day ; all these statements are very vague. 
If you have more definite information, communicate 
it to us. The Emperor expects the Duke of Vicenza 
to-night, with a definite decision about his affairs. 
The Emperor desires you to ascertain tiie Empress's 
real wishes, and wants to know whether she prefers 



244 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

to follow tlie Emperor in all the vicissitudes of his 
evil fortune, or to retire, either into some state that 
shall be given her, or to her father with her son." 

M. de Meneval replied that there was ground for 
fearing that the Empress was no longer free to go to 
the Emperor ; this was her personal desire, he added, 
but she still trusted in her father's affection, who, she 
said, would never consent to her separation from her 
husband and son ; she felt authorized by the Empe- 
ror's express desire to wait the result of her proposals 
to the Emperor of Austria. M. de Meneval said 
that the dread of being stopped on the way might 
put the Empress back, and that the idea of flight 
was repugnant to her. 

In a letter dated April 11, 4 A.M., Baron Fain said: 
" M. de Metternich has arrived in Paris, but he seems 
no more favorably disposed than M. de Schwarzen- 
berg. The Empress's plan to go to see her father 
seems consequently suitable to the Emperor ; mean- 
while, it is not known in Paris where the Emperor of 
Austria is. If the Empress knows, the Emperor 
wants her to tell him before she starts." 

In another letter, dated noon, the same day, the 
Emperor made Baron Fain say ; " It appears that 
arrangements were signed last night by the Duke of 
Vicenza and the Ministers of Russia, Austria, and 
England ; the island of Elba is given to the Emperor ; 
Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla to the Empress and 
the King of Rome. It would still be well for the 
Empress to continue to urge her father to let her 



MARIE LOUISE AT ORLEANS. 245 

have Tuscany, or, if that is impossible, to add to 
Parma and Piacenza, the territories of Lucca, Piom- 
bino, Massa di Carrare, and what is enclosed in Pon- 
tremoli ; in this way the Empress would be in com- 
munication with Elba. The Emperor's plan would 
be, when affairs are once settled, to go to Briare, 
where the Empress might join him, and from there 
they might continue their journey by Nevers, Moulins, 
and Mt. Cenis to Parma. The Empress and the King 
of Rome could rest at Parma, while the Emperor 
should go to Elba to make what preparations were 
necessary for the Empress's arrival. It is stipulated 
in the treaty that every Frenchman who shall follow 
shall preserve his rights as a Frenchman and his 
property, and shall be free to return. 

" The Emperor thinks the Empress should write 
to Madame de Bombers to find out whether she can 
come to look after the education of the King of 
Rome, since it appears that Madame de Montesquiou 
desires to return to Paris." This statement was in- 
exact : M. de M^neval told the Emperor that Madame 
de Montesquiou had never expressed any intention 
of returning to Paris, and that, whatever happened, 
she was determined never to leave her charge, unless 
he should be forcibly torn from her arms. 

The letter went on : " The Empress will form her 
household anew at Parma and Piacenza, where there 
are many ladies of noble family. Since the Grand 
Marshal goes with the Emperor, Countess Bertrand 
will accompany the Empress. No one knows where 



246 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

the Emperor of Austria is ; perhaps he will arrange 
to meet his daughter on her way. By following the 
route mentioned above, there will be no large cities 
to pass through except Lyons and Turin. In them 
she might sleep, and the Empress would soon be in 
her own territory. . . . The Emperor is very well, 
and, as I have already told you, his health is not 
affected by his moral sufferings ; he hopes to hear 
that the Empress is becoming consoled, and that she 
expects to be happy in the humble condition to which 
she is brought. Tlie Emperor is glad that the Em- 
press is to have Parma and Piacenza, because her 
independence is thereby assured, and she will have 
the most beautiful country in the world to live in, if 
she grows tired of the rocks of Elba, while Elba is 4 
a retreat that can suit the Emperor alone, wjio no 
longer wishes to rule anywhere." 

Affectionate as these letters were, they brought 
Marie Louise no consolation. The unhappy Princess 
said to the Duke of Rovigo : " I am really to be 
pitied ! Some advise me to go ; others, to stay. I 
write to the Emperor, and he does not ansv/er my 
questions. He tells me to write to my father; but 
what will my father say after he has let me be treated 
with such contumely ? I am abandoned, and I com- 
mit myself to Providence. It advised me wisely 
when it counselled me to become a canoness. I 
should have done better not to come to this country." 
Then she went on, her voice broken by sobs : " Go to 
the Emperor? . . . But I can't go without my son. 



MARIE LOUISE AT ORLEANS. 247 

who is onl}^ safe with me. . . . On the other luiud, 
if the Emperor fears any attack on his life, wliich is 
very probable, and has to take to flight, the embar- 
rassment I should cause him might make him fall 
into the hands of the enemy, who, I have no doubt, 
desire his death. I don't know Avhat to do ; I am 
broken-hearted." Her face was covered with tears. 
Then she spoke of her father, whose abandonment 
of her was a cruel blow, and she said, with touching 
modesty : " I can understand that the people should 
hate me in this country. Yet I am not to blame. 
Why did my father marry me, if he nourished the 
plans he is carrying out?" Marie Louise's com- 
plaints were well grounded. Twice had her father 
sacrificed her to political exigencies : once in placing 
her on the throne, again in driving her from it. The 
gentle, peaceful young Empress was not born to face 
such tempests, and her character, so well adapted for 
tranquillity, lacked the energy and firmness necessary 
for supporting, without trembling, the burden of such 
a destiny. 



XIX. 

THE ATTEMPT AT SUICIDE. 

WHAT had become of Napoleon since, on the 
5th of April, 1814, he had signed his abdica- 
tion, not merely for himself, but for his heirs ? Re- 
maining at Fontainebleau, he had fallen a prey to the 
deepest gloom. Being no longer either Emperor or 
commander-in-chief, he had had the bitter grief of 
handing over the command to Marshal Berthier, who 
gave in his allegiance to the Provisional Government. 
Like Charles V., he took part while alive in his own 
funeral rites, without having, like him, the satisfac- 
tion of seeing his own son reigning and his country 
victorious. Passing suddenly from feverish activity 
to absolute quiet, this untiring man, to whom rest' 
was torture, felt as if he were buried alive. His im- 
agination was ever active ; he already repented sign- 
ing his abdication and wanted to withdraw it. False 
information led him to suppose that the Emperor of 
Austria regretted the haste with which the other 
sovereigns condemned Marie Louise and the King of 
Rome in favor of the Bourbons, and he still nourished 
a faint hope of some relief from the projected inter- 
248 



THE ATTEMPT AT SUICIDE, 249 

view between the Empress and her father. He 
thought the abdication at least premature, and he 
blamed himself for it as for an act of weakness. The 
diplomatic negotiations he had entrusted to his pleni- 
potentiaries seemed to him humiliating and useless. 
Ought he, after enjoying such greatness, to live like 
a private person, and should the great sacrifice he had 
made for the world's peace be mixed up with pecun- 
iary arrangements ? " Of what use is a treaty," he 
asked himself, " when no one will settle with me the 
interests of France ? The moment there is no longer 
any question about me, there is no need of a treaty. 
I am conquered ; I yield to the force of arms. Only 
I ask not to be a prisoner of war, and to grant this, 
only a simple cartel is required." 

The Emperor's face, once so glowing with genius 
and confidence in his good fortune, grew darker every 
hour. When for the first time in his life he was seen 
to be absolutely discouraged, it began to be wondered 
whether he might not be thinking of suicide in his 
despair. His pistols had been removed and unloaded 
by the Count of Turenne ; and when the next day he 
asked for them impatiently, and complained that 
they were empty, it became clear that he had been 
wild enough to think of using them. 

Napoleon appeared to have abandoned all thoughts 
of suicide when, in the morning of April 11, the 
Baron de Bausset arrived at Fontainebleau with a 
letter from Marie Louise. As has been said, this 
prefect of the palace had been sent by the Em- 



250 THE INVASION OF 18U. 

press, first to Paris to see the Emperor of Austria, 
and thence to Fontainebleau to give Napoleon the 
news. At Paris, M. de Bausset, not finding the Em- 
peror Francis, had been compelled to see Prince 
Metternich in his stead, and he had been informed 
that Napoleon was to have the island of Elba, and 
Marie Louise the Duchy of Parma. As soon as he 
had heard this, M. de Bausset started for Fontaine- 
bleau and gave the Emperor Marie Louise's letter. 

" Dear Louise I " said the Emperor, after he had 
read it. Then he inquired about the health of his 
wife and son. " I found the Emperor calm, tranquil, 
and decided," says the Baron, in his Memoirs. " He 
had a well-tempered soul. Never, perhaps, did he 
seem greater. I spoke to him about the island of 
Elba. He knew beforehand that he was to be given 
this petty sovereignty. He even pointed out to me 
a little geography with statistics giving him all the 
information he desired on this place. ' The air is 
healthy,' he said, ' and the people are kindly. I shall 
not be too badly off there, and I hope that Marie 
Louise will find it comfortable.' He knew all the 
obstacles in the way of their meeting at Fontainebleau, 
but he hoped that once in possession of the Duchy of 
Parma, the Empress would be permitted to go with 
her son to live with him on the island of Elba. . . . 
He was deceived! . . . Never again was he to see 
these objects of his affection." 

At about two that afternoon, Napoleon was walk- 
ing on the terrace by the side of the Gallery of 



TUE ATTEMPT AT SUICIDE. 251 

Francis I., at the end of the Courtyard of the Foun- 
tain, when he sent for M. de Bausset and began to 
talk with him about recent events. He was far from 
approving of the way the Empress had been per- 
suaded to leave Paris, when the Baron reminded him 
of his letter to King Joseph. " Circumstances had 
altered, and required to be met differently. The 
mere presence of Louise in Paris would have been 
enough to prevent the treachery and defection of 
some of my troops. I should still be at the head of 
a formidable army, with which I should have com- 
pelled the enemy to leave Paris and to sign an 
honorable peace." 

Baron de Bausset then ventured to say that he 
regretted that the Emperor had not been willing to 
sign this peace at Chatillon. "I never believed in 
the enemy's good faith," replied Napoleon. " Every 
day there were new demands, new conditions; they 
did not want peace, and then I had told France that 
I should never consent to any condition which I 
thought humiliating, even with the enemy on the 
heights of Montmartre." When the Baron respect- 
fully suggested that France, even shorn as it was, 
yet was one of the finest kingdoms of the world, 
Napoleon said proudly: "I abdicate and cede noth- 
ing." Then he added : "See what fate is I At the 
battle of Arcis-sur-Aube, I did all I could to meet a 
glorious death, disputing the soil of my country inch 
by inch. I exposed myself incessantly. The bullets 
rained about me ; my clothes were torn by them, and 



252 THE INVASION OF I8I4. 

not one could touch me. For me to die by my own 
hands would be cowardice. Suicide does not agree 
with my principles or the rank I hold on the world's 
stage. I am a man condemned to live." 

Then Napoleon, still followed by the Baron de 
Bausset, walked up and down the terrace several 
times, in a deep, gloomy silence ; this he broke by 
saying with a bitter -smile, " Between ourselves, they 
say that a living gudgeon is better than a dead 
Emperor." Then he returned to his room alone. 
M. de Bausset was never to see him again. 

The next day, April 12, Macdonald, Caulaincourt, 
and Shouvaloff, an aide-de-camp of the Emperor 
Alexander, arrived at Fontainebleau with the treaty 
which had been concluded and signed the day before. 
"Are you bringing me back my abdication at last?" 
asked Napoleon when he saw Caulaincourt, who 
replied that the fundamental basis of the treaty had 
naturally been the abdication, and that had already 
been officially published. " What do I care for this 
treaty? " resumed Napoleon. '' I don't want to recog- 
nize it; I don't want to sign it; I shall not sign it." 
Caulaincourt carefully abstained from any discussion 
with the fallen Emperor, and let him sleep upon it. 

The first article of the treaty contained the abdica- 
tion; the second granted to Napoleon and Marie 
Louise the titles of Emperor and Empress ; the third 
confided to Napoleon sovereignty over the island of 
Elba; and the fifth that of the Duchies of Parma, 
Vicenza, and Guastalla to Marie Louise with the 



THE ATTEMPT AT SUICIDE. 253 

right of succession to her son. There were, besides, 
many pecuniary stipulations : an annual payment of 
two million francs to Napoleon ; one million to Jose- 
phine ; three hundred thousand to his mother ; five 
hundred thousand to King Joseph; two hundred 
thousand to Louis ; four hundred thousand to Queen 
Hortense and her children ; three hundred thousand 
to Princess Pauline. Two millions were placed at 
the Emperor's disposal for gifts, a sort of legacy to 
be granted during the testator's lifetime. The treaty 
also permitted Napoleon to take with him and to 
keep as his guard four hundred volunteers, officers, 
non-commissioned officers, and men. 

This treaty of April 11, wdiich the Allies regarded 
as the height of generosity, seemed to Napoleon the 
lowest depth of humiliation. After signing the 
treaties of Campo Formio, of Lun^ville, of Vienna, 
of Tilsit, of Presburg, to have to put his name to this 
miserable paper ; after possessing an empire vaster 
than Charlemagne, to have to content himself with 
the ridiculous sovereignty of Elba ; after leading the 
largest armies in the world, to command a petty bat- 
talion of four hundred ; to have to accept alms from 
his conquerors for himself and his people, was a bit- 
ter and torturing disgrace. Then to leave France 
smaller than he had found it; to lose not only all 
the conquests of the Empire, but also those of the 
Republic ; to have even the tricolored flag abolished, 
— all these things were cruel I And then to have 
to sign such a treaty at the very moment when the 



254 THE INVASION OF 18 14. 

Count d'Artois, the brother of Louis XVL, was 
entering the Tuileries in triumph ! 

Napoleon thought that death, that suicide, was 
preferable to the shame of signing so terrible and so 
disgraceful a treaty. At about six in the afternoon, 
in his talk, he brought up some of the memorable 
deaths, by their own hands, of the great men of antiq- 
uity in similar circumstances, and thus aroused the 
apprehensions of those who heard him. However, 
he went to bed quietly at about ten o'clock, and fell 
asleep. About midnight he called Hubert, his valet, 
who used to sleep in front of his door. " Come, 
Hubert," he said gently, " let us have a little fire," 
and the two men built it up again. Then Napo- 
leon bade his valet to go to rest. Then, after 
writing a few words on a piece of paper, which he 
crumpled, tore up, and threw in the fire, he went to 
the bureau and opened a dressing-case, in which was 
a little black bag. 

Napoleon had worn that bag during the retreat 
from Russia after the battle of Malo Jaroslavitz. 
When the sudden attack of the Cossacks took place, 
in which he narrowly escaped being taken prisoner, 
he determined always to carry poison about him, that 
he might not fall into the enemy's hands alive. 
Hence he had ordered Yvan, his surgeon, to put into 
the bag a poison formerly mentioned by Cabanis, the 
same which Condorcet had killed himself with. This 
poison the Emperor took, to escape his troubles, in 
the night of April 12, when in the deepest despair. 



THE ATTEMPT AT SUICIDE. 255 

Hubert, who was watching him through the crack of 
the door, saw his master put something into a glass 
of water, drink it, and go back to bed. Since, how- 
ever, he knew nothing about the existence of any 
poison, he fancied that Napoleon was drinking noth- 
ing but a glass of sugar and water. Still, he felt 
anxious, and listened for nearly half an hour. 

Napoleon was surprised to be still living. Instead 
of dying at once, as he expected, he was seized with 
spasms, and suffered frightfully. He sent for Dr. 
Yvan, doubtless to ask for another dose to hasten the 
death he longed for. Then Hubert, still more un- 
easy, heard a violent quarrel between the Emperor 
and his surgeon. Yvan firmly and indignantly re- 
fused to be an accomplice to the suicide. "You 
would," he cried, "make me seem a poisoner, an 
assassin, in the pay of your enemies. No ! I will not 
do it ! " The Emperor, who had caused the death of 
so many men, could not compass his own. Yvan 
gave him emetics, and then, still afraid that his 
patient might die, and distracted by the thought that 
he might himself be charged with murder, he lost his 
head, rushed from the room, ran down the stairs to 
the courtyard; there he found a horse fastened to 
the gate ; he sprang on its back and galloped away. 

Meanwhile, the silence of the long corridors of 
the palace was broken by much coming and going ; 
servants swarmed on the staircases ; candles were lit. 
Grand Marshal Bertrand, the Duke of Vicenza, the 
Duke of Bassano, were aroused, and they hastened 



256 THE INVASION OF 18 14. 

to the Emperor's bedroom. "Everything has be- 
trayed me," he said to them; "I am condemned to 
go on living." Then he fell into a stupor which 
lasted several hours. 

" God did not permit Napoleon to triumph," says 
M. Veuillot ; " he deigned to punish him. God did 
not wish that he should satiate himself with success, 
like those men from whom an avenging prosperity 
expels any thought of remorse. He punished him, 
making him descend, perhaps I should better say 
rise, to the human conditions ; he woke him from the 
intoxication of fortune, from forge tfulness of the last 
hour, and gave him time for the final battle, in which 
every man meets face to face the only enemy by 
whom it is important not to be definitely conquered." 

To have died before the expiation of Saint Helena 
would have been for Napoleon the renunciation of 
the noblest crown, — that of martyrdom. The great 
man needed the purification of long sufferings. For 
his soul, so long the slave of passions, to become 
free, his body had to be captive. If we look at things 
from the Christian's standpoint, thinking of eternity, 
it was his jailors who were to be his liberators. At 
Fontainebleau he had not been defeated enough. He 
had not drunk the bitter chalice to the dregs. He 
needed one more final defeat, — that of Waterloo. 
He needed meditation and remorse on the wave- 
beaten rocks. He needed the dialogue between his 
stormy thought and the murmur of the ocean. There 
it was that he at last was to attain real greatness, 



THE ATTEMPT AT SUICIDE. 257 

where he was to deserve a glance from the God of 
pity; there that, after enduring nobly one of the 
most pathetic and grand expiations known to history, 
he was to utter those ever-memorable words : " Not 
every one who wishes can be an atheist." 



XX. 



THE LAST WEEK AT FONTAINEBLEAU. 

"XTAPOLEON became reconciled to living. When 
-i_M he awoke in the morning of April 13, he was 
ashamed of having wished to kill himself, and bade 
his people maintain an absolute silence about the 
attempt. A violent perspiration, and some hours of 
sleep, had carried him through the crisis, but he was 
still weak and dejected. At ten in the morning, 
when Macdonald called to pay his respects, he was 
seated by the fire, with his head sunk in his hands, 
which wholly covered his face. He remained in that 
position, without speaking or moving, for half an 
hour ; at last he noticed that the Marshal was there. 
" I am grateful to you," he said, " for the trouble you 
have taken about my last interests, and I am sorry 
that I can express my gratitude by words alone." 
" In no case," answered Macdonald, " should I have 
accepted any other reward. Trouble of that sort is 
its own reward." " Well," said the Emperor, " I am 
going to offer you a proof of my gratitude which 
even your delicacy will not refuse." Then he had a 
Turkish sabre brought, which he gave to the Marshal, 
258 



THE LAST WEEK AT FONTAINEBLEAU. 259 

saying, " This is Murad Bey's sabre. I won it at the 
battle of Mount Tabor. It shall be a souvenir from 
me to you." 

Napoleon's face, which in the morning had been of 
a ghastly pallor, regained color during the day. He 
grew completely calm, and affixed his signature to 
the treaty which, the night before, had filled him with 
such mortal anguish. " God does not want me to 
die," he said, and complete resignation succeeded to 
his previous agitation. Possibly a ray of hope arose 
within him ; possibly he thought that the Allies were 
very imprudent in giving him a residence so near his 
former Empire ; possibly he foresaw the blunders of 
the Bourbons, and his own triumphal return to the 
Tuileries. 

However, in April, 1814, such a dream would have 
seemed most improbable. Never was a fallen sov- 
ereign pursued with bitterer insults and curses than 
Napoleon. With a few noble exceptions, all his old 
servitors left him. Berthier, on whom he had heaped 
so many favors ; Berthier, his Major-General, his 
intimate, with whom he shared his tent, left Fon- 
taine bleau promising to be back the next day^ " He 
won't come back," the Emperor said coldly to the 
Duke of Bassano. " What, Sire, this is Berthier's 
farewell? " — " Yes ; I tell you he won't come back." 
Every moment there was a new departure ; one left 
on account of his health ; another, for some family 
reason ; every one promised to return, but no one 
appeared again. Fontainebleau had become a waste, 



260 • THE INVASION OF I8I4. 

a city of the dead ; and Napoleon, gloomy, silent, and 
solitary, bore more likeness to a monk in a cloister 
than to a sovereign in a palace. 

" Napoleon already is nothing but a common man," 
says Baron Fain, who witnessed his hours of de- 
spondency. " He lives retired in a corner of the 
palace. If he leaves his room for a few minutes, it is 
to walk in the little garden (the Garden of Diana). 
Whenever he hears a carriage drive into the court- 
yard, he asks if it is not Berthier coming back, or 
one of his former ministers come to take leave. He 
expects to see Mol^, Fontanes, and the many others 
who owe him a last expression of devotion ; but no 
one comes." 

When he went back to his room. Napoleon used to 
read all the Paris newspapers, which were full of 
venomous hatred. Their frantic attacks, the storm 
of insult and abuse, did not move him ; and when 
their inventions became absurd, he would only smile. 

The devotion of the brave soldiers who remained 
faithful consoled him for the many apostasies. They 
used to walk about the walls and gardens of the 
palace trying to see through the railings the man 
whom they still idolized. When he was strolling in 
the Garden of Diana, they at every moment brought 
up non-commissioned officers and men of the Imperial 
Guard who begged to be allowed to join his battalion ; 
and they who had never asked for reward or promo- 
tion now asked for exile. Lamartine says : " Great 
affections come from the masses, because they come 



THE LAST WEEK AT FONTAINEBLEAU. 20 1 

from nature. Nature is magnanimous ; courts are 
selfish ; favor corrupts." 

There were in the higher ranks some noble exam- 
ples of disinterested attachment. There was the 
Duke of Vicenza, who, with his usual energy, was 
making all the preparations for departure as if he 
were still Grand Master of the Horse ; and the Duke 
of Bassano, of whom Baron Fain says : " He never 
leaves Napoleon for a moment. The Emperor, when 
he opens his heart to this Minister, in whom he has 
the utmost confidence, shows the same inward seren- 
ity that used to appear on his face in his happiest 
days. To see this Minister's manners, one would 
never believe that those days are gone ; there is the 
same simplicity in his attentions and consideration. 
Duty and love are manifest in them ; and if they 
sometimes become touching and almost formal, it is 
because they come from a brave and sympathetic 
nature." Napoleon was always touched by the 
zealous affections of this loyal servant. " Bassano," 
he said to him, " they say you prevented my making 
peace. What do you say to that? This charge 
ought to make you smile, like those they bring 
against me nowadays." 

General Bertrand, who was to discharge the duties 
of Grand Marshal of the Palace, not merely at Elba, 
but also at Saint Helena, stands forth as a living 
image of fidelit}^ As for General Drouot, the Sage 
of the Grand Army, as Napoleon used to call him, he 
was to immortalize himself by his devotion to his un- 



262 THE INVASION OF 1814, 



happy sovereign. Lacordaire, in his funeral oration 
on this eminently virtuous man, said: ''The fall of 
the Empire, by setting General Drouot face to face 
with misfortune, has left him famous in a rare way. 
He loved the Empire and the Emperor with a chival- 
rous affection : the Empire, because he thought it the 
highest pitch of greatness which France had attained 
since Charlemagne ; the Emperor, because he spent 
with him two years of suffering and defeat, and had 
perceived the man's heart under the monarch's trap- 
pings and the conqueror's pride. The fall of those 
two giants, the Emperor and the Empire, was for 
him a blow which we can scarcely comprehend, so 
remote are we from the events, and acquainted with 
them only through reading the pallid story on the 
cold, and often heartless, page. But those who put 
into that magnificent work twenty years of their toil 
and of their hearts' blood, those who grew old on 
the battle-field between glory and death, ever present 
and ever mingling, and who, in raising France, be- 
lieved that they served a patriotic and just cause, 
they must have known, when their work crumbled, 
an anguish which we can neither describe nor feel." 

General Drouot was to be the governor of this 
island of Elba. At Fontainebleau, a few days before 
they started thither. Napoleon asked the General 
how rich he was, and when he answered, that he had 
about two thousand five hundred francs a year, 
Napoleon said, " That is too little ; no one knows 
what may happen. I don't want you to come to 



THE LAST WEEK AT FONTAINEBLEAU. 263 

want after my time ; I am going to give you two 
hundred thousand francs." Drouot declined them; 
but seeing that the Emperor was pained, he said: 
" If Your Majesty were to give me the money now, 
people would say that the Emperor Napoleon, in 
adversity, had only friends whom he bought, and 
that I followed Your Majesty because I was paid for 
so doing." Drouot reminds us of Shakespeare's 

words : — 

" Yet he that can endure 
To follow with allegiance a fall'n lord 
Does conquer him that did his master conquer." 

(Antony and Cleopatra, Act III., sc. xiii.) 

Napoleon was more and more touched by the marks 
of devotion he received from so many officers and 
men. 

He received Colonel de Montholon, who had just 
been making a reconnoissance on the upper Loire, and 
who told him that he could count on the people of 
the South and collect their troops. " It is too late," 
answered Napoleon ; " that now would mean civil 
w^ar, and nothing could ever persuade me to try 
that." April 18, the four foreign commissioners who 
were to accompany Napoleon on his journey and 
be responsible for his safety, met at the Palace of 
Fontainebleau. They were the Russian General 
Shouvaloff, the Austrian General Roller, the English 
Colonel Campbell, and the Prussian General Turch- 
sess. The 20th was fixed upon for the start. 

Napoleon had not then begun to doubt Marie 



264 THE INVASION OF ISU. 

Louise, whom he regarded as a victim, not an accom- 
plice of the Coalition. He knew that she had just 
seen her father at Rambouillet, and felt sure that she 
had expressed only the noblest feelings. He still 
hoped to see her soon, and so far from uttering any 
reproaches, he wrote to her affectionate letters like 
the following, which is without date, though presum- 
ably written April 19 : — 

"My dear Louise: I have received your letter, 
and I learn all your sufferings, which add to my own. 
I am glad to hear that Corvisart encourages you ; I 
am most grateful to him; he confirms the good 
opinion I have always had of him ; tell him so from 
me. Let him send me frequent word how you are. 
Try to go at once to Aix, as I hear Corvisart advises. 

Keep well for and for your son, who needs your 

care. I am about starting for Elba, and will write 
to you from there. I shall make every preparation 
for receiving you. Write often ; direct your letters 
to the Viceroy and to your uncle, if, as I hear, he 
has been made Grand Duke of Tuscany. Good by, 
my dear Louise Marie." 

The very day he started from Fontainebleau for 
Elba, April 20, 1814, he wrote this letter to his 
wife : — 

" My Dear : I am leaving to rest to-night at Briare. 
To-morrow morning I shall push on to Saint Tropez. 
Bausset, who will hand you this letter, will bring me 
news of you, and will tell you I am well. I hope 
that 3^ou will get better and be able to join me. 



THE LAST WEEK AT FONTAINEBLEAU. 265 

Moiitesquiou, who left at 2 a.m., ought to be with 
you. I tlid not hear from you yesterday, but I hope 
that the Prefect of the Palace will join me this 
evening and will give me news of you. Good by, 
my dear Louise. You can always count on the 
courage, the calmness, and the friendship of your 
husband. Napoleon. A kiss to the little King." 

These two letters make it clear he was still far from 
suspecting Marie Louise of ungrateful desertion. 
They show that when leaving Fontainebleau he still 
thought of his wife, whom then he had no reason for 
blaming ; that he looked upon her as a model of 
gentleness and kindness, of religion and virtue, and 
that in good or evil fortune he was still proud of 
being her husband. 



XXI. 

THE LEAVE-TAKING AT FONTAINEBLEAU. 

HISTORY and legend mingle around Napoleon. 
Events of which people still living were eye- 
witnesses appear to us in such epic proportions, in 
such grandeur, that they seem to carry us back to dis- 
tant ages. Napoleon has the air of a hero of anti- 
quity, and the veterans of his Imperial Guard seem 
as remote as Ceesar's soldiers or the knights of 
Charlemagne. The leave-taking at Fontaine bleau, the 
Courtyard of the White Horse, the Emperor, the 
grenadiers of the Old Guard, form a wonderful drama, 
set in a wonderful stage, and with what brilliant 
characters ! This dramatic scene was taken by Be- 
ranger for the subject of one of his most famous 
songs, — Les Deux Grenadiers^ — which represents 
two soldiers talking together at the last midnight 
before Napoleon's departure. 

In that sad night Napoleon was thinking of poster- 
ity, and he devised a way to lend a poetic interest to 
his departure for his parody of a kingdom at Elba, 
given him in exchange for the most magnificent em- 
pire in the world. And so well did he understand 

266 



THE LEAVE-TAKISG AT FONTAiyEBLEAU. 2GT 

the art of striking the popiUar imagination, that this 
mehincholj incident will, perhaps, make a deeper 
impression on futui-e generations than all his tri- 
umphal entrances into the great capitals of Europe. 

In the early morning of April 20, all the inhabi- 
tants of Fontainebleau had gathered to witneso the 
memorable scene, crowding to the railing around the 
Courtyard of the White Horse, where it was to take 
place. In this courtyard the Old Guard was drawA 
up. At noon the carriages had driven up to the foot 
of the Horseshoe Staircase, and General Bertrand had 
gone in to tell Napoleon that everything was ready. 
Napoleon came out of his room into the Gallery of 
Francis I. There were assembled the few sur^dving 
relics of his once brilliant court, — the Duke of Bas- 
sano, General Belliard, Colonel de Busse, Colonel 
Anatole de Montesquiou, Count Turenne, General 
Fouler, the Baron of Meso-riQ-nv, Colonel Gouro-aud, 
Baron Fain, Lieutenant-Colonel Athalin, Baron de 
la Place, Baron Leborgne d'Ideville, General Kosa- 
kovski. Colonel Vonsovitch. He replied to their 
teal's by a grasp of the hand, a glance, and with- 
out saying a word, passed through the gallery and 
vestibule, and walked down the Hoi-seshoe Staircase 
Avith a firm, swift step. As Lamartine says : '* The 
troops expressed a more solemn and religious feeling 
than cheers could express, — the honor, namely, of 
their fidelity, even in the darkest days, and the set- 
ting of the glory now about to sink behind the forest 
trees, beliind the waves of the Mediterranean. Thev 



268 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

envied those of their companions to whom fortune 
had accorded exile in his island with their Emperor." 
The Allies had permitted him to take with him but a 
single battalion, which was to be all he needed for 
conquering his throne. The men of the Old Guard 
had been asked how many would like to follow him, 
and all, without exception, offered themselves. Only 
four hundred were chosen. They were not in the 
courtyard, but were already on their way. Napoleon 
was at the foot of the staircase ; the drums beat a 
salute. Why were they not draped in mourning? 
This was, in truth, the funeral of the Emperor, of 
the Empire, of the army. Their noise alone broke 
the silence. The soldiers were silent and gloomy. 
Napoleon made a sign that he wished to speak to 
them. The drums stopped beating; all seemed to 
hold their breath. 

" Soldiers of the Old Guard," the Emperor began, 
"I say good by to you. For twenty years I have 
ever found you on the path to honor and to glory. 
In these last days, as in those of our prosperity, you 
have never ceased to be models of bravery and fidel- 
ity. With men like you our cause was not lost ; but 
if it had no end, the war would have been a civil 
one, and France would have been only more unhappy. 
Hence I sacrificed my interests to those of my coun- 
try, and I leave. Do you, my friends, continue to 
serve France. Its happiness will be my only thought 
— the sole object of my prayers. Do not mourn my 
lot. If I have consented to outlive myself, it is in 



TBE LEAVE-TAKING AT FONTAINEBLEAU. 2G9 

order yet to serve your glory. I wish to record the 
great deeds we have done together." Here Napo- 
leon's voice broke. He gave way to his emotion for 
a moment, and then went on : " Good by, good by, my 
children. I should like to press you all to my heart. 
Let me at least kiss your flag ! " At these words. 
General Petit, a man as modest as he was brave, 
seized the flag, and stepped forward. Napoleon 
embraced the General and kissed the eagle of the 
standard. Then nothing was to be heard for a few 
minutes but half-suppressed sobs, and the old grena- 
diers were seen wiping the tears from their weather- 
beaten faces. Napoleon, who was dee^Dly affected, 
controlled himself by a mighty effort, raised his head, 
and in a firmer voice called out : " Good by, once 
more, good by, my old companions. Let this last 
kiss pass into your hearts ! " Then he tore himself 
away from those about him, and covering his face 
with his hands, sprang into his carriage, which at 
once started on the first stage of his exile. 

D 

" What more shall I say ? " asks General de S^gur, 
in his Memoirs. " The Grand Army, the Empire, the 
Emperor, all was over ! The Genius that had sup- 
ported me vanished with Napoleon. Now that I 
have come to this end of so much greatness, it seems 
to me that my literary life is over, as was our military 
career ; that there was no more history for the histo- 
rian as there was no more war for warriors. It is a 
bitter and grievous memory that we recall of a coun- 
try to be reconquered, of an affront to be avenged, 



270 THJE^ INVASION OF" ISU. 

of all the glory with which we were still defending 
ourselves, when suddenly our arms fell powerless to 
our side, and in the prime of life our disappointed 
hearts had to begin a new career in strange circum- 
stances." 

No scene has more deeply impressed the world 
than this leave-taking at Fontainebleau. No poet ever 
invented a more memorable incident. This extraor- 
dinary man, great in either event of fortune, knew 
how to touch even his enemies. The four foreign com- 
missioners and their suite did not understand a word 
that the Emperor said, yet they could not conquer 
the emotion that seized them at the pathetic spectacle. 
Napoleon and his Old Guard have been sung in 
foreign lands as well as in France, by Lord Byron 
and by Heine. 

Byron celebrates the 20th of April, 1814, in his 
poem, ^ To Napoleon " : — 

" Must thou go, my glorious chief, 
Sever'd from the faithful few ? 
Who can tell thy warrior's grief, 
Maddening o'er that long adieu ? 

" Woman's love and friendship's zeal, 
Dear as both have been to me — 
What are they to all I feel, 

With a soldier's faith for thee ? " 

Heine's poem, " The Two Grenadiers," is well known. 
It has been set to music by Schumann. A Bavarian 
dramatist has written a play, Josephine Bonaparte, 



THE LEAVE-TAKING AT FONTAINEBLEAU. 271 

which introduces the leave-taking at Fontainebleau. 
It has had great success at Munich, and when the 
actor who takes the part of Napoleon Bonaparte comes 
down the staircase and bids farewell to his old com- 
panions, the Germans are as much moved as the 
French. 



XXII. 



THE JOURNEY TO ELBA. 



nVTAPOLEON'S journey to Elba was full of inci- 
-1-M dent, but it began calmly. General Drouot 
drove on ahead in one carriage; Napoleon followed 
in another with General Bertrand; then came the 
four commissioners of the Allied Powers. April 20, 
they stopped for the night at Briare; the 21st at 
Nevers; the 22d at Roanne. The Emperor sent 
for the mayor of this town, and said to him : " Yon 
ought to have here six thousand men of the army of 
Spain. If I had not been betrayed more than four- 
teen times a day, I should still be on the throne." 
So far Napoleon encountered no hostile feeling on 
his way. Everywhere he stopped, he talked with the 
officials, and he had the consolation of hearing cries 
of " Long live the Emperor 1 " The first part of the 
way he had been escorted by detachments of cavalry, — 
a useless precaution, because in the Bourbonnais the 
attitude of the populace was friendly ; but the escort 
was dismissed just when it would have been of ser- 
vice, and Napoleon was in as great peril of his life as 
if he had been on the battle-field. He passed through 

272 



THE JOURNEY TO ELBA. 273 

Lyons, April 23, at ajbout eleven o'clock at niglit, 
without the knowledge of any one in the city. The 
24th he reached Peage-de-Roussillon, a little village 
on the Rhone, and there he breakfasted. 

As he was pushing on towards Valence, he met 
Marshal Augereau, Duke of Castiglione. " Where 
are you going like that ? " he asked, grasping him by 
the arm ; " Are you going to the court? " Augereau 
answered that at that moment he was on his way to 
Lyons. This man of the 18th Fructidor, formerly a 
fanatical Republican, was hastening to join the Bour- 
bons and to abjure the tricolor. April 16, from his 
headquarters at Valence, he had issued a proclamation 
to his soldiers, in which he said : " Soldiers, you are 
freed from your oaths, by the nation, in which the 
sovereignty resides, and still more, if more were nec- 
essary, by the abdication of a man who, after immo- 
lating millions of victims to his cruel ambition, has 
not known how to die as a soldier. The nation sum- 
mons Louis XVIII. to the throne. Born a French- 
man, he will be proud of your glory, and will gladly 
surround himself with your leaders ; a descendant of 
Henri IV., he will have his heart ; he wdll love the 
soldiers and the people. Let us then swear fidelity 
to Louis XVIII., and to the Constitution which pre- 
sents him to us; let us raise the true French flag 
which abolishes every emblem of a revolution now 
ended, and soon you will find in the gratitude of your 
king and of your country a just reward for your noble 
deeds." The Emperor, doubtless still ignorant of 



274 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 

this proclamation, talked for about a quarter of an 
hour with the hero of Castiglione, and kissed him on 
leaving. It has been said that an hour later he said 
to General KoUer, the Austrian commissioner: "I 
have just heard of Augereau's infamous proclamation ; 
if I had known about it when I met him, I should 
have combed his hair for him." 

Napoleon passed through Valence, which had been 
one of his first garrisons when an obscure officer of 
artillery, but he did not stop there. The soldiers 
of Augereau's corps, though they all wore the white 
cockade, shouted, " Long live the Emperor ! " But 
after Valence there were no more cheers ; he en- 
countered nothing but imprecations and curses. 

As Napoleon was passing through Orange, April 
25, he was greeted with cries of,- "Long live the 
King ! Long live Louis XVIII. ! " The same day, 
shortly before reaching Avignon, where he was to 
change horses, he encountered a number of men 
assembled, who shouted furiously : " Long live the 
King ! Hurrah for the Allies ! Down with the 
tyrant ! the wretch ! the beggar ! " A little further, 
at the village of Orgon, the popular fury was at its 
height. Before the inn where he was to stop there 
had been raised a gallows, on which swung a figure 
covered with blood, with an inscription on his breast : 
" This, sooner or later, will be the tyrant's lot ! " The 
infuriated crowd climbed upon Napoleon's carriage, 
with the most savage insults. Count Shouvaloff, 
the Russian commissioner, had nxuch difficulty in 
calming them. 



THE JOUUNEY TO ELBA. 27o 

An eye-witness, the Abbd Ferrucci, Cardinal Gabri- 
elli's secretary, thus describes the terrible scene : 
" Or^on, April 25. A most noteworthy and unex- 
pected incident took place to-day, in my presence. 
The ex-Emperor Napoleon was passing through m- 
cognito, with three carriages, at eight in the morning: 
the other carriages had already gone through. The 
people, who spy out everything, gathered. Napoleon 
was to stop for breakfast, but he could not. All 
shouted : ' Death to the tyrant I Long live the 
King ! ' They burned him in ef^gy before his eyes, 
and held up before him figures stabbed and covered 
with blood. Some climbed up on his carriage and 
shook their fists in his face, crying, ' Death to the 
tyrant ! ' Some women, seizing stones, shouted, 
' Give me back my son ! ' It was a painful spec- 
tacle, inconsistent with honor, humanity, and re- 
ligion. For my part, I should have been glad to 
protect him with my own body." 

The peril grew greater every moment. Napoleon 
had good reason to believe that his wonderful career 
was to come to a most terrible end. Sir Walter 
Scott, though generally most hostile to the Emperor, 
does not hesitate to say : " The danger was of a new 
and peculiarly horrible description, and calculated to 
appall many to whom the terrors of a field of battle 
were familiar. The bravest soldier might shudder 
at a death like that of the De Witts." 

If we may believe the report of the Prussian com- 
missioner, Count Von Waldburg Truchsess, the ac- 



276 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

count of which Count Shouvaloff certified to Chateau- 
briand, the Emperor, when a quarter of a league from 
Orgon, thought it necessary to disguise himself ; he 
put on a round hat with a white cockade, and got into 
a wretched blue overcoat; then he mounted a post- 
horse and galloped on ahead of his own carriage, in 
order to pass for a courier. The commissioners, who 
were not aware that he had changed his dress, fol- 
lowed at some distance. Near Saint Canat, he entered 
a miserable inn, on the highroad, called La Calade. 

" It was not till we were near Saint Canat," says 
the Prussian commissioner, "that we heard of the 
Emperor's disguise and of his arrival at this inn ; he 
was accompanied by but a single courier ; his whole 
suite, from the general to the scullion, wore white 
cockades, with which they seemed to have provided 
themselves beforehand. His valet came up to us, 
and begged us to make liim pass for Colonel Camp- 
bell, the name he had given to the hostess when he 
arrived. We promised to comply with this request, 
and I went first into a sort of chamber, Avhere I was 
surprised to find the former monarch of the world 
buried in deep thought, with his head resting in his 
hands. I did not recognize him at first, and went 
nearer. He sprang up when he heard my steps, and 
I saw his face wet with tears. He made me a sign 
not to say anything, made me sit down by him, and 
all the time the hostess was in the room, talked to 
me about indifferent things. . . . We sat down at 
the table ; but since the meal had not been prepared 



THE JOURNEY TO ELBA. 277 

by his own cooks, he could not make up his mind to 
eat anything lest he should be poisoned. . . . He 
talked a good deal, and was very pleasant. When 
Ave were alone, and our hostess, who waited on us, 
had gone away, he told us why he felt that his life 
was in danger; he was convinced that the French 
government had taken measures to have him abducted 
or assassinated in this region. ... To convince us 
that his fears were well grounded, he told us of his 
talk wdth his hostess, who had not recognized him. 
* Well,' she asked, ' have you met Bonaparte ? ' 
' No,' he replied. She went on, ' I wonder whether 
he will save himself ; I always think the people are 
going to murder him, and I'm sure he will deserve 
it ! Tell me, are they going to ship him to his island? ' 
'Oh, yes.' 'They'll drown him, won't they?' 'I 
hope so,' answered Napoleon. ' So you see to what 
danger I am exposed.' " 

This man in disguise, weeping in a miserable road- 
side inn, is he who was crowned Emperor of the 
French at Notre Dame, and King of Italy in the 
Cathedral of Milan. This was the man of destiny, 
the new Cgesar, the modern Charlemagne, who ap- 
peared at Dresden two years before as the king of 
kings ; to such strange misery had he fallen. Napoleon 
naturally dreaded dying here in this wretched hole, 
disguised as he was, and with the white cockade in his 
hat. Yet escape from his perils was not easy. Napo- 
leon knew well these Southern people. Early in his 
career he had seen them at work, and they were as 



278 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 

zealous now in their fervor for Rojalism as they had 
been for the Republic : the White Terror promised to 
be as pitiless as the Red Terror had been. 

Meanwhile, night had fallen, cold and dark, but 
on that account offering Napoleon a better protection 
than a strong escort. A violent mistral was raging, 
and this, with the darkness of the night, prevented 
the populace from gathering about this inn. Never- 
theless, a good many suspected that the Emperor was 
there, and made their way thither. The foreign 
commissioners in vain tried to convince them that 
they were mistaken; that Napoleon was not there. 
"We don't want to do him any harm," they said; 
" we only want to look at him to see what effect mis- 
fortune has had upon him. We shall at the most 
only utter a few reproaches, and tell him the truth, 
which he has so seldom heard." The commissioners 
succeeded in dissuading them and in calming them. 
Then some one appeared who promised to maintain 
order at Aix, if he could be given a letter for the 
mayor of that place. His offer was accepted, and the 
man started for Aix, returning soon with the assur- 
ance that the mayor had taken measures to prevent 
any disorder. It was midnight. The crowd that 
had assembled at the doors of the inn had for the 
most part dispersed; only a few were left, with lan- 
terns. Napoleon decided to leave. But first he 
thought it prudent to put on a new disguise ; hence, 
wishing to pass for a foreign officer, he put on Gen- 
eral Roller's uniform, and wrapped himself up in 



THE JOURNEY TO ELBA. 279 

General Shouvaloff's cloak. Then, half an liour 
after midnight, they started out into the black and 
blustering night, eluding the few inquisitive men 
who still lingered about and turned the light of their 
dark-lanterns on the carriages. 

When the Emperor tried to poison himself at Fon- 
tainebleau, could he have foreseen this deepest humil- 
iation, — that he should wear a foreign uniform to 
escape being massacred by Frenchmen? Probably 
not; reality was to outdo his worst apprehensions. 
The Prussian commissioner, in his account, has no 
word of compassion for the defeated giant ; he says : 
" The Emperor did not regain confidence ; he stayed 
in the Austrian general's carriage, and bade the 
coachman smoke, — a familiarity which would less 
betray his presence. He even asked General Roller 
to sing ; and when he said he did not know how to 
sing, Bonaparte told him to whistle ; and so he drove 
on, crouching in one of the corners of the carriage, 
pretending to sleep, lulled by the General's charming 
music, breathing the incense of the driver's pipe." 

Chateaubriand exclaims that such a story is odi- 
ous reading. " What," he asks, " the commissioners 
could not give better protection to the man for Avhom 
they had the honor of being responsible ? Who were 
they, to put on such airs of superiorit}^ to a man like 
that ? Bonaparte said with truth that he might have 
made the journey in the company of a part of his 
guard. They were plainly indifferent to his fate ; 
they enjoyed his degradation ; they gladly gave their 



280 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

consent to the marks of contempt which the victim 
required for his safety ; it is pleasant to have under 
one's feet the destiny of the man who used to walk 
on the loftiest heads, and to avenge haughtiness by 
insult ! So the commissioners have no word, even of 
philosophic reflection, on such a change of fortune, to 
warn man of his nothingness and of the greatness of 
God's judgments ! In the ranks of the Allies there 
had been many flatterers of Napoleon; when one 
has gone on his knees before force, he has no right to 
triumpb in misfortune." 

It is easy to understand the impression made on 
the Emperor's mind by his journey through Provence. 
It possibly explains his indulgence to the Imperialists 
who turned Royalists. He must have remembered 
that even he, the Emperor, had been forced to cry 
" Long live the King ! " and to disguise, not merely 
his feelings, but also his person. He knew how rare 
was the stoicism of a Cato or a Brutus, and when he 
returned from Elba, he blamed no one of his minis- 
ters or marshals for turning their coats. He was 
past all possibility of surprise, and his extremes of 
good and evil fortune taught him at once compassion 
and contempt. 

The end of the journey was without incident after 
leaving Aix. April 26, they breakfasted at Saint 
Maximin. Napoleon still wore General Roller's uni- 
form. " You would not have recognized me in these 
' clothes ? " he asked of the sub-prefect of Aix ; then 
he added, pointing to the commissioners : " These gen- 



TUE JOURNEY TO ELBA. 281 

tlemen induced me to put them on, deeming it neces- 
sary for my safety. I might have had an escort, but 
I refused, preferring to trust to French loyalty. I 
had no reason to regret this confidence from Fon- 
tainebleau to Avignon, but since then I have run 
much danger. The Provence people disgrace them- 
selves." 

Then he told them that when he was an artillery 
officer he had been sent into this country to set free 
two Royalists who were about to be hanged 'for wear- 
ing the white cockade. " It was only with great dif- 
ficulty," he went on, " that I saved them from the 
hands of those madmen, and now they are beginning 
the same excesses against those who refuse to put on 
the white cockade. Such is the inconsistency of the 
French." 

In the evening of April 26 they reached the castle 
of Bouillidou, near Luc, where they found Princess 
Pauline Borghese, who was much moved when she 
saw her brother. There were Austrian troops near 
by, charged with escorting the Emperor and seeing 
to his embarkment. Without further danger, he 
reached Fr^jus, April 27, and thence he wrote to 
Corvisart : " I have received your letter of the 22d. 
I am glad to notice your good conduct when so many 
have conducted themselves ill. I am grateful to you, 
and it confirms the opinion I had already formed of 
your character. Give me news of Marie Louise, and 
never doubt my affection for you. Do not give way 
to melancholy thoughts ; I hope that you will long 



282 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

be spared to do good and to make your friends 
happy." 

The fifteenth article of the treaty of April 11, 
1814, ran thus : " The Imperial Guard will furnish a 
detachment of from twelve to fifteen hundred men, 
of all arms of the service, to serve as escort to Saint 
Tropez, the place of sailing " : this article had not 
been carried out. Napoleon did not have the stipu- 
lated escort, and he did not sail from Saint Tropez. 
The sixteenth article was also unobserved; it said: 
" There shall be supplied an armed corvette and the 
transports necessary to conduct to their destination 
His Majesty the Emperor and his household. The 
corvette shall remain His Majesty's property." The 
French Government sent the brig, Inconstayit., but 
Napoleon refused to sail in it. " If the government," 
he said, " had known what was due to itself, it would 
have sent me a three-decker, and not an old worthless 
brig, which my dignity forbids me boarding." The 
Emperor preferred to take the English frigate, Un- 
daunted, which Colonel Campbell had had prepared. 

April 27, Napoleon, who was to embark the next 
day in this frigate, in the gulf of Saint Raphael, in- 
vited to dinner, at Fr^jus, the four foreign commis- 
sioners, Count Klamur, and the captain of the English 
ship. " There he resumed all his Imperial dignity," 
says the Count of Waldburg. "... He spoke to 
us with rare openness of his plans for the aggrandize- 
ment of France at our expense ; he explained how 
he had meant to turn Hamburg into another Ant- 



THE JOURNEY TO ELBA. 283 

werp, and to make the harbor of Cuxhaven like that 
of Cherbourg. He pointed out to us what no one 
had noticed, that the Elbe was as deep as the Scheldt, 
and that a port could be built at its mouth like the 
one that made Belgium powerful. He spoke with 
such passion and vivacity of his fleets at Toulon, 
Brest, and Antwerp, of his Hamburg army, and of his 
mortars at Hyeres, with which he could throw shells 
three thousand paces, that one would have thought that 
all still belonged to him." After dinner he took leave 
of the Russian and Prussian commissioners : only the 
English and Austrian commissioners were to accom- 
pany him to Elba. He took with him Generals Ber- 
trand and Drouot, the Pole, Major Gerzmanofsky, 
two quartermasters of the palace, a paymaster, a phy- 
sician, two secretaries, a house-steward, a valet, two 
cooks, and six servants. An escort of Austrian 
hussars accompanied him to the harbor of Saint 
Raphael, where he was received with military honors 
and a salute of twenty-four cannon. He set sail, 
April 28, at 9 p.ini. May 3, he anchored in the road^ 
stead of Porto Ferrajo, and on the 4th, he landed 
amid the cheers of the inhabitants, who were proud 
of their sovereign. 



XXIII. 

THE LAST DAYS OF MARIE LOUISE IN FRANCE. 

WHILE Napoleon was thus on his way from 
Fontainebleau to Elba, what had become of 
the Empress, Marie Louise ? We left her at Orleans, 
April 12, 1814, harassed and ill, weeping and won- 
'dering what was her duty. The same day, Baron de 
Bausset arrived, bringing her a letter from Napoleon 
and one from Metternich. The Austrian Minister 
assured Marie Louise that she should be free to lead 
an independent life, with the right of succession for 
her son, and he indicated that the best thing for her 
to do would be to go to Austria with her son to await 
her choice between the place where the Emperor 
Napoleon might be and her own establishment ; he 
added that the Emperor Francis would have the hap- 
piness of helping to dry the tears which his unhappy 
daughter had only too many reasons for shedding ; 
that she could be quiet for a season and free to decide 
upon the future, and that she might bring with her 
such persons as she best trusted. 

Shortly after she received this letter. Prince Paul 
Esterhazy and Prince Wenezel-Lichtenstein reached 
284 



LAST DAYS OF MARIE LOUISE IN FRANCE. 285 

Orleans with another letter from Metternich, telling 
her that the Ducliies of Parma and Piacenza had been 
granted her, revertible to her son, and he asked her 
to go at once to the castle of Rambouillet to meet her 
father. 

Marie Louise, who had long desired this interview, 
and Avas very anxious to plead not only her own cause, 
but also that of her husband and son, readily agreed. 
She left Orleans, April 11, at 8 p.m., under the escort 
of some of the cavalry of the Imperial Guard. At 
Angerville, however, their place was taken by some 
Cossacks, who brandished their long pikes about the 
carriages as if they were a convoy of prisoners. In 
fact, from this moment Marie Louise was really a 
captive. When, April 13, at noon, she reached Ram- 
bouillet, worn out with mental suffering and bodily 
fatigue, she found the roadway and the interior of the 
castle guarded b}^ Russian troops. She regretted her 
haste in leaving Orleans, for she learned that her 
father would not be in Paris till the next day and 
would not come to Rambouillet till April 16. 

The 12th, Marie Louise might have joined Napo- 
leon at Fontainebleau ; the 13th that was impossible. 
The foreigners, to whom she had imprudently en- 
trusted herself, would not have permitted it. Up to 
that time, that is to say, up to April 13, Napoleon, as 
we have said, on account of his intention to kill him- 
self, did not care to see again his wife and son. But 
as soon as he renounced his plan of suicide, he longed 
to press them to his heart. The 13th, he sent Gen- 



286 THE INVASION OF 18U. 

eral Cambronne to Orleans with two battalions of the 
Guard. Since he had heard that one of the reasons 
that prevented the Empress from going to Fontaine- 
bleau was the dread of being stopped on the way by the 
allied troops, he doubtless sent this escort to protect 
her. But General Cambronne arrived too late ; Marie 
Louise was already on her way to Rambouillet. 

The Empress spent the 13th, 14th, and 15th in 
feverish impatience to see her father. At one mo- 
ment she was pacing her apartment in great agita- 
tion ; the next she was motionless, shedding torrents 
of tears. The visit that Queen Hortense made 
brought her no consolation ; she saw that Josephine's 
daughter suspected her of desiring to leave Napo- 
leon. 

In the afternoon of April 16, a very plain open car- 
riage brought to Rambouillet the Emperor of Austria, 
accompanied only by Prince Metternich. Marie Louise, 
followed by her son and Madame de Montesquiou, 
went down to the foot of the palace staircase. When 
she saw her father, she burst into tears, and even be- 
fore she kissed him, she placed the King of Rome in 
his arms. This was a silent reproach which the Em- 
peror of Anuria must well have understood when for 
the first time he pressed to his heart the grandson 
whom he had never seen, and now beheld in circum- 
stances so agonizing for the unhappy mother. 

Marie Louise barely took time to present to her 
father such members of her household as happened 
to be present, and hastened with him into her room. 



LAST DAYS OF MAMIE LOUISE IN FRANCE, 287 

Her father was no less moved than she was. The lit- 
tle boy, whose fate was already so pathetic, won his ad- 
miration ; he gazed at him tenderly, and promised to 
look after him, as if to atone for not having defended 
him more warmly. Henceforth, Marie Louise and 
the King of Rome lived only under the protection of 
Austria. Two Ijattalions of Austrian infantry and 
two squadrons of Austrian cavalry took the place of 
the Russian troops on guard at Rambouillet. The 
Emperor Francis spent the night there, and left 
the next morning at nine, having persuaded his 
daughter to go to Vienna. He took good care not 
to tell her that he condemned her never to see her 
husband again, and he led her to suppose that after 
she had rested awhile in the bosom of her family, 
she should be free to divide her time between the 
Duchy of Parma and the island of Elba. But 
these promises did not satisfy Marie Louise. Her 
interview with her father, so far from allaying her 
anxiety, only redoubled it. With her elbows on her 
knees, and her head in her hands, she meditated 
and wept. 

April 19, Marie Louise received at Rambouillet a 
visit which was extremely painful to her, but her 
father insisted on it, namely, from the Emperor Alex- 
ander. As the Duke of Rovigo says in his Memoirs : 
" The Czar must have seen from her face, which had 
been bathed with tears for twenty days, what effect he 
produced on her. Doubtless he did not know that 
the Empress had been informed in detail of every- 



288 THE INVASION OF 18 14. 

thing that had taken place in Paris before and during 
his reception of the deputation of marshals. But she 
knew all the plans framed against her husband, and 
she would have had to possess great self-control to 
keep her face calm before the instigator of the griefs 
by which she was tormented." 

Alexander apologized for the liberty he took in 
presenting himself before the Empress without first 
securing her permission. He added that he came 
with the consent of the Emperor of Austria, and 
warmly assured her of his sympathy and devotion. 
"He was so amiable, so easy," says the Baron de 
Bausset, "that we were almost tempted to believe 
that nothing serious had happened in Paris. After 
breakfast he asked the Empress if he might see her 
son. Then turning towards me, — for I had the honor 
of meeting him at the Erfurt Congress, — he asked 
me if I would kindly take him to ' the little King ' : 
those are his own words. I preceded him, after sending 
word to Madame de Montesquiou. When he saw the 
boy, the Emperor kissed him, played with him, and 
looked at him attentively." Marie Louise treated the 
Czar politely, but coldly. 

As soon as he heard that the Empress was at Ram- 
bouillet. Napoleon gave up all thought of asking her 
to join him. He knew that there the Emperor of 
Austria would not let her come to him, and that 
Marie Louise was no longer free. Nevertheless, 
April 19, the day before he left Fontainebleau, he 
dictated to Baron Fain a letter for the Baron de 



X.4-Sr DAYS OF MARIE LOUISE IN FRANCE. 289 

M^neval, in which he said : " Inasmuch as the Em- 
press has made many inquiries of M. de La Phice about 
the ishmd of Elba, I send you the report of an officer 
of engineers who has just come from there : it is 
fuller than anything we have. You may show it 
to the Empress, if you think it will interest her." 
Those last words are not without sadness, — " if you 
think it will interest her." It seems as if he foresaw 
that desertion which throws such a cloud on the fame 
of Marie Louise. 

The letter closed thus : " The Emperor was not 
able to leave to-day, because the preparations could 
not be completed ; he will leave to-morrow, to pass 
through Nevers, Moulins, Lyons, Avignon, Aix, to 
Saint Tropez. Letters must be directed to Leghorn 
and Genoa, to the care of the Viceroy and of the 
King of Naples." That same evening, April 19, 
there came another letter from Fontainebleau : '' The 
Emperor starts at 9 A.M. to-morrow. He wrote to 
you this morning the road he means to take to L3^ons 
through the Bourbonnais, to Saint Tropez, through 
Avignon and Aix. The Emperor would like to 
receive news from the Empress to-morrow evening at 
Briare, where he means to pass the night ; he hopes 
also to find letters at Saint Tropez. In a word. His 
Majesty begs of you to write to him at every oppor- 
tunity." 

April 22, Marie Louise received at Rambouillet 
another visit even more disagreeable than that of the 
Emperor Alexander ; that, namely, of the King of 



290 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

Prussia. After spending an hour with the Empress, 
this monarch asked the Baron de Bausset, as the Czar 
had done, to take him to " the little King." The 
King was less affectionate, less demonstrative, than 
the Emperor Alexander; but, like him, he kissed 
" the little King." 

The same day the Austrian general. Count Kinski, 
accompanied by several officers, arrived at Rambouil- 
let. He was to accompany Marie Louise to Vienna, 
and came to see about the preparations for the 
journey. 

Marie Louise started from Rambouillet April 23, 
stopping a day at Grosbois, the castle of Berthier, 
Prince of Wagram, where she saw her father, who 
left on the 25th to dine in Paris with the Count 
d'Artois. Then she pushed on with her son, not 
stopping again. The Empress was accompanied by 
the Duchess of Montebello, the Countess of Brignoli, 
General Caffarelli, MM. de Saint Aignan, de Baus- 
set, and de Meneval ; the King of Rome by his gov- 
erness, the Countess of Montesquieu, and by Madame 
Soufflot. The Duke of Rovigo says : " She travelled 
under the escort of her father's troops, and took the 
road by which the Allies had marched from Basle to 
Paris. She passed through the departments of a 
country which, four years before, had raised tri- 
umphal arches to greet her, had scattered flowers 
before her feet. It saw her leave as the last victim 
of the enemies who had ravaged its cities, and carrying 
with her the tie which, shortly before, had seemed to 



LAST DAYS OF MARIE LOUISE IN FEANCE. t^Ul 

unite her more firmly witli the French. Her heart 
was rent with anguish in this sad journey : everything 
was full of bitterness. She carried with her the 
regrets of all who had enjoyed the happiness of 
approaching her, and left behind her the memory of 
her virtues." 

The Empress spent the night of April 25 at Pro- 
vins, whence she wrote to Napoleon. The country 
presented a most doleful appearance : the ravages of 
war had left hideous traces. The harvests had been 
trampled beneath the feet of cavalry horses ; every- 
where were to be seen houses destroyed, villages in 
ashes. The night of the 26th, she stopped at Troyes, 
in the house of M. de Mesgrigny, father of one 
of the Emperor's equerries; the 27th, at Chatillon, 
famous for its fruitless congress. The 28th, she 
reached Dijon, where the Austrian troops were drawn 
up to receive her as their Emperor's daughter. They 
had wanted to welcome her with a salute and to 
illuminate the city, but she declined. That night she 
slept at Dijon ; the next at Gray ; the 30th at Vesoul ; 
May 1st at Belfort; and May 2d, she crossed the 
Rhine between Huningue and Basle, leaving Frencli 
soil. 

Marie Louise had spent but four years in France, 
and they had left a more painful than happy mem- 
ory. Her happiness had not lasted more than two 
years, but had been darkened by many a cloud. The 
days of her prosperity came to an end with the Dres- 
den interview. The Russian campaign was the begin- 



292 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

ning of a series of anxieties which ended in complete 
iniser}^ 

When Marie Louise recalled her eventful career, 
those four perturbed years must have seemed like a 
distressing nightmare. Her elevation and her fall 
were equally astounding. A single consolation was 
left her, — the thought that she had done her duty. 
In 1814 she could make herself no serious reproach. 
A good wife, a good mother, a good Regent, she had 
always obeyed Napoleon's orders, and he never once 
complained of her. All parties respected her and 
amid all the insults poured out on her husband, no 
voice was raised to denounce or even to criticise her. 
In their Memoirs the most ardent partisans of the 
Emperor, Meneval, Bausset, Savary, have only most 
flattering words for her. No Legitimist, no Repub- 
lican, has attacked her. When she left France, every 
one paid homage to her virtue and her character. 
Every one felt sure that she would go to join her 
husband at Elba. She thought so herself; she had 
not yet felt the influence of the Count of Neipperg. 
The bonds uniting her to Napoleon were stretched, 
but not yet broken, and at first after her return in 
Germany, she had not ceased to be a Frenchwoman. 

Time was needed to turn the dethroned Empress 
into an Austrian princess ; the transformation only 
took place gradually. Drawn in opposite directions, 
the prey of contradictory influences, hesitating be- 
tween two countries, as between her father and 
her husband, she at first experienced painful scruples 



LAST BAYS OF MARIE LOUISE IN FRANCE. 293 

and doubts. It was a difficult position for a young 
woman of twenty-two. Ambushes beset this victim 
of politics on all sides, and all possible plans 
were devised to prevent her going to Elba, whither 
her duty called her. Accustomed from infancy, 
as daughter and subject, to follow her father's 
wishes, she at last blindly accepted a yoke which 
relieved her of many responsibilities. Being of a 
passive, submissive nature, she entrusted herself and 
her son to her father's care : it is he rather than 
she who deserves the blame of posterity. In any 
other time, she would have been a faithful wife, an 
excellent mother, an honored sovereign, but she had 
not enough energy to play a proper part in such 
troublous days. For four years she had been a true 
Frenchwoman; but when she had returned to Ger- 
many, all the ideas, the prejudices, the passions of 
her girlhood reappeared, and she forgot her second 
countr}^ in her attachment for the land of her birth. 
Thus happened to her what often happens to women 
who marry foreigners : they do no! really change 
their nationality, but remain devoted daughters of 
their native land. Social conventions, even religious 
ties, are often powerless to destroy the work of nature, 
and marriage, sacred as it is, cannot uproot the mem- 
ory of one's country. The Archduchess of Austria, 
the Duchess of Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla suc- 
ceeded to the Empress of the French, the Queen of 
Italy. As for her son, not only did he cease to be 
the King of Rome, the Prince Imperial of France, he 



294 THE INVASION OF 1814. 

never was even Hereditary Prince of Parma. He 
was never to obtain the promised right of succes- 
sion. The time was drawing near when he was to be 
robbed of the name of Bonaparte, the name of Napo- 
leon, and was to be known only as Francis, Duke 
of Reichstadt. 



INDEX. 



Abdication of Napoleon, the first, 
(General de Segur's account of, 
172 ; the draft of, 175 ; despatched 
to Paris, 178. 

Abdication, the second, form of, 
215 ; signed by Xapoleon, 21(J. 

Alexander I. disposed to withdraw 
from the alliance, 39 ; on account 
of intercepted letters to Napoleon 
decides to march on Paris, 90; 
noble language of, as to Napo- 
leon's abdication and exile, 210; 
interview of, with Marie Louise 
ii t Rambouillet, 287. 

Allies, the, determined to refuse 
the natural boundaries of France, 
59; propositions of, offensive to 
France, 60 ; grant a delay of ten 
days, 08; determined on destroy- > 
iug Napoleon, 88; Informed by 
traitors of Napoleon's plans, 02 ; 
disposed to withhold everything 
from Napoleon, 209, 

Areis-sur-Aube, battle of, 84; an 
heroic page in the Emperor's 
liistory, 85. 

Augereau, General, meets Napoleon 
on his way to Elba, 273; procla- 
mation of, to his soldiers, 273. 

li.usauo, Duke of, writes to the 
I )iike of Vicenza, giving him from 
Xapoleon carte blanche to con- 
duct negotiations, 01; devotion 
of, to Napoleon, 201. 

Bausset, M. de, assures the Em- 
press of the fidelity of her guard, 
234; sent to Francis II. with a 
letter from Marie Louise, 236; 



brings a letter from Marie Louise 
to Napoleon, 249. 

Berangef-, " Les Deux Grenadiers " 
of, 2()6. 

Berthier, General, leaves Napoleon, 
259. 

Bertrand, General, faithful to Napo- 
leon, 201. 

Belliard, General, informs Napo- 
leon at Juvisy of the fate of Paris, 
140 ; urges him not to go to Paris, 
142. 

Blois, court and government at, 
151 ; condition of, at the end of 
the Regency, 225. 

Bliicher, General, at Brienne, 0; 
defeated by Napoleon at Mont- 
mirail and elsewhere, 17; ad- 
vances on Paris, 42; is saved by 
ihe capitulation of Soissons, 40 ; 
sends Marie Louise an intercepted 
letter of Napoleon, 103. 

Bonaparte, Jerome, his relations 
with Napoleon, 104. 

Bonaparte, Joseph, letter of, to 
Napoleon, February 3, 1814, 13; 
urges Napoleon not to let the Em- 
press leave Paris, 10 ; his letter to 
Napoleon of February 11, 1814, 21 ; 
writes to Napoleon concerning 
the exhaustion of the country 
and the fidelity of the National 
Guard, 34; writes to Napoleon 
respecting peace, 47 ; reads Napo- 
leon's letters in the Council, 112: 
proclamation of, to the citizens 
of Paris, 129; directs the minis- 
ters and dignitaries to leave 
Paris, and authorizes capitula- 
295 



296 



INDEX. 



tiou, 131 ; letters of, at Blois, to 
Napoleon at Fontainebleau, 149 
et seq.; plans of, to change the 
seat of the Regency, 222; letter 
of, to Napoleon, 222. 

Bonaparte, Louis, gives offence to 
Napoleon by his frankness, 104. 

Borghese, Princess Pauline, meets 
Napoleon on his way to Elba, 281. 

Borgo Pozzo di, declaration of, con- 
cerning the Coalition, 39. 

Boulay, M., opposes tlie Duke of 
Feltre, and urges Marie Louise 
to remain in Paris, 109. 

Bourrienne, describes Napoleon's 
feelings for Brienne, 9 ; describes 
the reception of Marmont by the 
Royalists, 252. 

Brienne, the battle of, G. 

Byron's poem " To Napoleon," 270. 

Castlereagh, Lord, exercises pre- 
ponderant influence at Chatillon, 
67 ; promotes the agreement 
which resulted in the Holy Al- 
liance, 68. 

Champaubert, battle of, 21, 65. 

Chastrel, General, keeps his forces 
at their post, 195. 

Chatillon, Congress of, conditions 
of peace proposed by the Allies 
at, 47 ; its fruitless efforts, 57 ; 
the demands of the Powers at, 
61 ; propositions of, on February 
17, 66 ; end of the Congress of, 80. 

Chateaubriand, quoted, 135; re- 
cords the baseness of the Senate 
and Provisional Government, 
231 ; quoted, 279. 

Constant, Napoleon's valet, remi- 
niscence of, 7. 

Craonne, battle of, 48. 

Dalberg, M. de, reported to be in 
the pay of the Allies, 93. 

Dejean, General, brings word to 
the defenders of Paris that Na- 
poleon is at hand, 134. 

Drouot, General, devotion of, to 



Napoleon, 261; Lacordaire's eu- 
logy of, 262; governor of Elba, 
262. 

Elba, proposed as the place of 
Napoleon's exile by Alexander I., 
210 ; Napoleon lands at, 283. 

Essonnes, the defection of, carried 
out by Marmont's generals, 192. 

Esterhazy, Prince, conversation of, 
with the Duke of Vicenza, 71. 

Fabvier, Colonel, informed by Mar- 
shal Marmont of Prince Schwar- 
zenberg's proposal, 184; refuses 
to join the other officers in their 
defection, 194 ; informs Mar- 
mont of the defection, 196; dis- 
missed by Marmont, 197. 

Fain, Baron, quoted, 178 ; describes 
the general exhaustion at the end 
of the campaign, 210. 

Feltre, Duke of, urges the depar- 
ture of Marie Louise, 109, 111. 

Ferrucci, Abbe', describes the in- 
sults to Napoleon on his way to 
Elba, 275. 

Fontainebleau, palace of, 155 et 
seq.; Napoleon's rooms in, 158; 
his departure from, 270. 

Francis IL meets Marie Louise 
at Rambouillet, 286. 

Galbois, Colonel, carries to Marie 
Louise a message from NajDoleon 
announcing his abdication, 227. 

Gourgaud, Colonel, sent by Na- 
poleon to summon Marmont and 
Mortier, 192. 

Haussonville, d', Coiint, arouses the 
enthusiasm of the officers of the 
Guard for Marie Louise, 233. 

Heine's "The Two Grenadiers," 
270. 

Hubert, Napoleon's valet, witnesses 
his attempt at suicide, 254. 

Lamartine describes Napoleon's 
leave-taking, 267. 



INDEX. 



297 



Lichtenstein, Prince, carries propo- 
sitions for an armistice to Napo- 
leon, 3(). 

Macdonald, Marshal, urges Napo- 
leon not to concern himself about 
Paris, *.)9 ; furnished the account 
of Napoleon's first abdication to 
General de Segur, 112 ; announces 
to Napoleon he will not march 
on Paris, 176 ; receives a Turkish 
sabre as a present from Napo- 
leon, 258. 

Maizicres, the cure of, guides the 
armjs G. 

Marie Louise, receives a deputa- 
tion of the National Guard, 3; 
receives the flags captured by 
Napoleon from the Coalition, 40; 
her letter to her father urging 
him to end the war, 41, 87 ; tells 
the Duke of Rovigo of Napo- 
leon's letter to her intercepted 
by Bliicher, 102; her situation 
grave and embarrassing, 103; 
presides over a council at the 
Tuileries to decide whether she 
is to stay or to leave Paris, 108 ; 
decides to leave, 114; her resolu- 
tion to obey Napoleon's orders, 
118 ; her departure, 120 ct seq. ; 
her suite, 122; at Rambouillet, 
147; tact and devotion of her 
suite, 148; at Blois with the 
court and government, 151 et seq. , 
ignorant of the state of affairs, 
217 ; letter of, to her father, en- 
treating him not to abandon her, 
219; her distress, 220; keeps up 
hope, 225; her proclamation of 
April 7 the last official paper of 
the Regency, 220; receives news 
of the Emperor's abdication, 227 ; 
wishes to join him, but is dis- 
suaded, 229; distributes presents 
among her people, 231 ; dispersal 
of her household, 231; advised 
by Joseph to quit Blois, 232; re- 
solves not to leave, 233; leaves 



for Orleans with General Shouva- 
loff , 237 ; greeted as Empress at 
Orleans, 238; receives the reply 
of her father to her appeal, 240; 
her property plundered by the 
Provisional Government, 241 ; re- 
ceives messages from Napoleon, 
243 et seq. ; considers herself 
abandoned by her father, 246; 
assured of the succession of her 
sou to the Duchies of Parma and 
Piacenza, 285; goes to Ram- 
bouillet to meet her father, 285; 
her interview with him, 287 ; re- 
ceives a visit from Alexander I., 
287 ; receives the King of Prussia, 
290; starts for Vienna, 290; her 
career as Empress of France, 
291 et seq. 

Marmont and Mortier, the forces 
of, routed at Fere-Champenoise, 
98 ; enter Paris, 126. 

Marmont, General (Duke of Ra- 
gusa), takes command at Charen- 
ton, 129; refuses to capitulate, 
132; sends a flag of truce to 
Prince Schwarzenberg, 134; his 
defection, 181 ; observations of 
Thiers upon him, 182; describes 
his feelings, 182 et seq. ■ his reply 
to Prince Schwarzenberg, 185 ; 
announces to his generals his 
course and urges them to join 
the Provisional Government, 186; 
letter of, to Napoleon, announcing 
his decision, 186; is informed of 
Napoleon's abdication, 189; has 
an interview with Prince Schwar- 
zenberg and recalls his decision, 
190; goes to Talleyrand with tli(^ 
other plenipotentiaries of Napo- 
leon, 191; informed by Colonel 
Fabvier of the defection of his 
officers, IIM); again won over by 
the Royalists, 197 ; his account of 
the revolt of the soldiers and of 
his action, 198 et seq.; his re- 
morse and last days, 202. 



298 



INDEX. 



Mechlin, Archbishop of, his treach- 
ery to Napoleon, 92 ; his con- 
spiracy with Talleyrand, 94. 

Meissonier's picture of Napoleon 
in 1814, 11. 

Meneval, Baron de, charged by 
Napoleon to prepare' the Empress 
for the end, 218; describes the 
distress of Marie Louise, 220; 
quoted, 235, 237, 244. 

Metternich, Prince, reply of, to the 
Duke of Vicenza on the situation, 
64; writes the Duke of Vicenza 
in relation to Napoleon's counter- 
project, 78. 

Moncey, Marshal, statue to, in 
honor of his heroic defence- at 
the Clichy gate, 138 ; testifies his 
admiration and gratitude to Na- 
poleon at the abdication, 175. 

Monit<iui\ the, describes Napoleon's 
reception at Saint Dizier, 5 ; de- 
scribes the atrocities of the Cos- 
sacks, 24; gives an account of 
Napoleon's entrance into Cham- 
pagne, 37; silence of, after the 
flight of Marie Louise, 125. 

Montholon, Colonel de, reports to 
Napoleon after the abdication, 
263. 

Mortier and Marmont routed at 
Fere-Champenoise, 98. 

Napoleon leaves Paris, January 25, 
1814, 3; his reception at Saint 
Dizier reported in the Moniteur, 
5 ; manoeuvres to prevent the junc- 
tion of Bliicher and Schwarzen- 
berg, 5 ; fights the battle of Bri- 
enne, 6 ; his letter to Joseph, Jan- 
uary 31, 1814, 7 ; his school days 
at Brienne, 8 ; loses the battle of 
Rothiere, 12 ; sends directions to 
Joseph from Troyes, 14; his re- 
treat and despondency, 15 ; his 
letter to Joseph regarding the 
occupation of Paris, and the de- 
parture of the Empress and King 
of Rome, 17 et seq. ; defeats 



Bliicher and the Russians, 21; 
letter of, to Joseph respecting 
Schwarzenberg's flag of truce and 
the treaty, 24 ; his confidence in 
the future, 26 ; gains the battle of 
Montereau, 27 ; writes to Joseph 
respecting the situation, 27; his 
letter to Francis II. from Nogent, 
28 et seq.; his letter to Joseph 
directing affairs at Paris, 33; 
grants an armistice at the re- 
quest of Schwarzenberg, 36; his 
letter to Joseph from Troyes, 37 ; 
his energy and hopefulness in ad- 
verse fortune, 44 et seq. ; his an- 
guish at the surrender of Soissons, 
46 ; gains the battle of Craonne, 48 ; 
retreats on Soissons, 49; Joseph 
urges him to make peace, 49, 52; 
his imperious replies, 51 et seq. ; 
wins the battle of Champaubert 
and others, 65 ; directs the Duke 
of Vicenza to do everything to 
secure peace, 65 ; angry with the 
proposition of the Coalition, 66; 
displeased with the Duke of 
Vicenza's frankness, 74; his coun- 
ter-project to the Allies' ultima- 
tum, 78; determines to attack, 
and returns to the Seine, 83; 
fights the battle of Arcis-sur- 
Aube, 84; his peril and escape, 
85 ; retreats across the Aube and 
destroys his bridges, 86; deter- 
mines to unite the garrisons in 
the East, 86 ; resolves to cut the 
enemy's base, 90; met by the 
Duke of Vicenza at Saint Dizier, 
97; full of enthusiasm and con- 
fidence, 97; decides to go to 
Paris, 99; his letter to the Em- 
press intercepted by Bliicher, 
103 ; his relations with Jerome 
and Louis, 104 ; scouts the idea 
of a national uprising, 106; met 
by General Belliard at the Foun- 
tains of Juvisy, 139; is informed 
of the fate of Paris, 140; deter- 
mined to go to Paris, 142; com- 



INDEX. 



299 



missions the Duke of Vicenza to 
negotiate, and gives him full 
powers, 145 ; hears of the capitu- 
lation and goes to Foutainebleau, 
14G, 101; letter of, to Joseph at 
Blois, 153 ; his tragic fate at Fou- 
tainebleau, 101 ; bent on fighting, 
104 ; the Duke of Vicenza reports 
to him the state of affairs in 
Paris, 107 ; still bent on fighting, 
108; addresses the Old Guard, 
108; his first abdication, 172 et 
seq. ; Ney attempts to persuade 
him to abdicate, 173; writes to 
Baron de Meneval to urge the 
Empress to appeal to her father, 
174; declares his decision to ab- 
dicate, 174; stipulates that his 
son shall be his successor, 177 ; 
appoints the Duke of Vicenza 
and others his plenipotentiaries 
to carry his abdication to the 
Allies, 178 ; still hopes to be able 
to resume the conflict, 204; re- 
ceives word of the defection of 
the Sixth Corps and of Marmont's 
agreement, 205; addresses the 
army referring to Marmont's 
conduct and the Senate's denun- 
ciations, 200 et seq. ; is informed 
of the failure of his overtures to 
the Allies, 211 ; tries to inspire 
his marshals with warlike energy, 
214; signs the second abdication, 
210; hints at suicide, 218; not 
anxious to see Marie Louise, 229; 
repents his abdication, 248 ; medi- 
tates suicide, 249; talks with 
Baron de Bausset about Elba, 
250; regrets Marie Louise's de- 
parture from Paris, 251 ; the 
treaty of the Allies is brought to 
him, 252; takes poison, 254; his 
sufferings, 255; recovers, and 
abandons the idea of suicide, 
258; signs the treaty, 259; de- 
votion of the soldiers to him, 
200; his faithful adherents, 201 ; 
offers money to General Drouot, 



203; letters of, to Marie Louise, 
204; resembles a hero of antiq- 
uity, 200; the personages of his 
court remaining, 207; takes 
leave of his people, 207 ; his fare- 
well address to the Old Guard, 
208 ; his departure for Elba, 272 ; 
meets Marshal Augereau at Val- 
ence, 273 ; meets with insults at 
Orange, 274; is in peril at 
Orgon, 275 ; disguises himself, 
270 ; passes for Colonel Camp- 
bell, 270; relates an anecdote of 
his early life at Aix, 281 ; meets 
Pauline, 281 ; articles of treaty 
not observed with regard to his 
escort, 282; invites the commis- 
sioners to dine with him at Fre- 
jus, and unfolds his plans, 282; 
sails in the English frigate the 
" Undaunted," and lands in Elba, 
283 ; an escort sent by, for Marie 
Louise arrives too late, 280 ; gives 
up all idea of having Marie 
Louise join him, 288; sends her 
an account of Elba and of his 
journey, 289. 

National Guard pledges its fidelity 
to Napoleon, 3 et seq. ; officers of, 
beseech the Empress to remain, 
120. 

Ney, Marshal, letter of, to Talley- 
rand, announcing Napoleon's con- 
sent to complete abdication, 212; 
attempts to persuade Napoleon to 
abdicate, 173. 

Orleans, condition of, 239. 

Paris and the Parisians during the 
invasion, 1 et seq. ; absence of pa- 
triotism and religious sentiment 
in, 107 ; defenceless condition of, 
on the arrival of the Allies, 127 ; 
lack of heroic feeling in, 128; 
weakness of the defence, 129; 
bombarded, 135; capitulation of, 
140. 

Polytechnic School, heroic spirit of 
the young men of, 136. 



300 



INDEX. 



Pope, the, final note concerning, be- 
tween the Allies and Vicenza, 79. 

Prussia, King of, visits Marie Louise 
at Rambouillet, 289. 

Regency, proclamation of, to the 
prefects, 223. 

" Rer/ent," the, the crown diamond, 
anecdote of, 242. 

Rome, the King of, his reluctance 
to leave the Tuileries, 121 ; under 
Marshal Marmont's instructions, 
203; becomes Francis Duke of 
Reichstadt, 294. 

Rothiere, battle of, 9 et seq. 

Rovigo, Duke of, refuses to rouse 
Paris in the Emperor's behalf, 
115; eulogizes Marie Louise, 221. 

Russian columns in sight of Paris, 
126. 

Saint Dizier, Napoleon's reception 
at, 5. 

Schwarzenberg, Prince, asks for an 
armistice, 24, 36 ; proposal of, to 
Marshal Marmout, 182 ; replies 
to Marmont's letter, 188 ; has an 
interview with Marmont, 190 ; 
gives Napoleon's plenipotentia- 
ries a safe conduct, 191. 

Scott, Sir Walter, quoted, 275. 

Sebastiani, General, asks Naj)oleon 
why he does not summon the 
nation to rise, 106. 

Segur, General de, describes Napo- 
leon's stay at Brienne, 7; says 
that the Coalition really fell at 
the time of the armistice, 38 ; 
gives an incident of Napoleon's 
retreat from Arcis-sur-Aube, 87 ; 
his account of Napoleon's abdi- 
cation, l72; estimate of Mar- 
mont, 201. 

Senate, the resolutions of, attack- 
ing Napoleon, his answer, 206. 

Shouvaloff, General, sent to Blois 
to conduct Marie Louise to 
Orleans, 235. 

Sixth Corps, the soldiers, faithful 



to Napoleon, revolt against their 

officers, 195. 
Soissons, capitulation of, 44. 
Souham, General, terror-stricken 

at Napoleon's summons, urges 

the other generals to cross the 

Essonnes, 194. 
Stael, Madame de, on Napoleon's 

campaign of 1814, 12. 

Talleyrand, M. de, reported to be 
in communication with the Allies, 
93 ; suspected by the Duke of 
Rovigo, 94 ; escapes being seized 
by Napoleon, 95 ; says that the 
departure of Marie Louise would 
throw Paris into the hands of the 
Royalists, 111 ; his remarks to the 
Duke of Rovigo, 116; appointed 
President of the Senate under the 
Provisional Government, 166. 

Thiers, comment of, on the demands 
of the powers, 62; opinion of the 
plan of a last struggle, 165 ; says 
Napoleon's abdication was on the 
4th of April, 172 ; remarks of, upon 
Marshal Marmont, 182, 200. 

Treaty of the Allies brought to 
Napoleon, 252; its terms, 253. 

Truchsess, Count von Waldburg, his 
report of Napoleon's disguise and 
peril on his way to Elba, 276. 

Vicenza, Duke of (General Caulaiu- 
court), the sole plenipotentiary 
of France at the Congress of 
Chatillon, 58; his frank and 
prudent counsels, 59; letter of 
to Marshal Berthier on the situa- 
tion, 60; left by Napoleon in 
ignorance of the real state of 
affairs, 61 ; letter of, to Metter- 
nich ui-ging a speedy peace, 63; 
letter of, to Napoleon on the 
gravity of the situation and the 
necessity for peace, 69 et seq.; 
reports Prince Esterhazy's con- 
versation to Napoleon, 71 ; depre- 
cates Napoleon's displeasure, 74 ; 



INDEX. 



:)01 



hands in a statement in reply to 
the Allies' ultimatum, 7(); hauds 
in Napoleon's counter-project, 
78; given full powers by Napo- 
leon to make peace, 145 ; reports 
to Napoleon the state of affairs 
in Paris, 1(57 ; urges him to abdi- 
cate, 107 ; reads the draft of the 
abdication to the Emperor and 
marshals, 175 ; faithful to Napo- 
leon, 261. 



Vitrolles, M. de, betrays the con- 
dition of France to the Allies, 93. 

Wilson, Mr. Robert, on the position 
of the Allies and the French 
treachery that lost Napoleon his 
crown, 92. 

Yvan, Napoleon's surgeon, refuses 
to give him poison, 255. 



Typography by J. S. Gushing & Co., Boston. 
Presswork by Berwick & Smith, Boston. 



FAMOUS WOMEN OF THE 
FRENCH COURT. 



CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, PUBLISHERS. 



WITHIN the past few years M. Imbert de Saint- Amand 
has written a series of volumes which have made 
him one of the most popular authors of France. Each has 
for its nucleus some portion of the life of one of the eminent 
women who have presided over or figured at the French 
court, either at Versailles or the Tuileries. But though thus 
largely biographical and possessing the interest inseparable 
from personality, the volumes are equally pictures of the 
times they describe. He is himself saturated with the litera- 
ture and history of the period, and what mainly distinguishes 
his books is the fact that they are in considerable part made 
up of contemporary letters and memoirs, so that the reader 
hears the characters themselves speak, and is brought into 
the closest imaginary contact with them. Moreover, the 
complexion of the mosaic thus cleverly mortised is familiar 
rather than heroic. The historian is not above gossip in 
its good sense, and the way in which the life of the time 
and of its distinguished personages is depicted is extremely 
intimate as well as vivid and truthful. 

The ten volumes now issued and in press relate to Marie 
Antoinette, Josephine and Marie Louise. They give a vivid 
representation of the momentous times immediately before, 
during and after the epoch of the Revolution. Probably no 
times in any country were ever so picturesque, so crowded 
with events, and so peopled with striking characters. The 
characteristics of the old regime and the events of the early 



FAMOUS WOMEN OF THE FRENCH COURT, 

years of the Revolution are grouped effectively around the 
sympathetic figure of Louis Sixteenth's queen. In the first 
two books in which she figures, Josephine is taken as the 
center of the new society that issued from the disorganization 
wrought by the Revolution, and the third describes the 
beginning of the Imperial epoch. In "The Happy Days 
of the Empress Marie Louise," we are led behind the 
scenes, and shown the domestic life as well as the splendid 
court pomp of the world's Conqueror at the acme of his 
career — a most dramatic contrast with the picture drawn 
in the concluding three volumes, which describe the " De- 
cadence of the Empire " owing to the Russian campaign, 
the "Invasion of 1814 "and the "Return from Elba and 
the Hundred Days." 



FAMOUS WOMEN OF THE FRENCH COURT. 

From the French of Imbert de Saint-Amand. 

Each with. Portrait, 1 2mo, ■$i.2S- 

Three Volumes on Marie Antoinette, 
marie antoinette and the end of the old regime. 

MARIE ANTOINETTE AT THE TUILERIES (In press). 

MARIE ANTOINETTE AND THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY (In press). 

Three Volumes on the Empress Josephine. 

citizeness bonaparte. 

the wife of the first consul. 

the court of the empress josephine. 

Four Volumes on the Empress Marie Louise. 

THE happy days OF MARIE LOUISE. 

MARIE LOUISE AND THE DECADENCE OF THE EMPIRE. 

MARIE LOUISE AND THE INVASION OF 1814. 

MARIE LOUISE, THE RETURN FROM ELBA AND THE HUNDRED DAYS 

(In press). 



FAMOUS WOMEN OF THE FRENCH COURT. 



' ' In these translations of this interesting series of sketches, we have 
found an unexpected amount of pleasure and profit. The author cites 
for us passages from forgotten diaries, hitherto unearthed letters, extracts 
from public proceedings, and the like, and contrives to combine and arrange 
his material so as to ??take a great many very vivid and pleasing pictures. 
N^or is this all. The material he lays before us is of real value, and 
much, if not most of it, must be unknown save to the special students of 
the period. We can, therefore, cordially commend these books to the 
attention of our readers. They will find them attractive in their arrange- 
ment, never dull, with much 'variety of scene and incident, and admir- 
ably translated." — The Nation, of December jc), i8go. 



Marie Antoinette and the End of the Old Regime. 

The years immediately preceding the outbreak of the Revolution 
comprise the epoch treated under this title, which aptly characterizes the 
passing away of the old order, before the tremendous social as well as 
political upheaval of the Revolution. 



Marie Antoinette at the Tuileries. 

The vicissitudes of the Royal Family, and incidentally the political 
history of the time, from the forcible removal from Versailles in 1789 to 
the end of 1791, including the unfortunate attempt at flight and the 
arrest at Varennes are the subject of this book. 



Mane Antoinette and the Downfall of Royalty, 

Continuing the story of the preceding volume, the author here nar- 
rates the turbulent and terrible scenes of the beginning of the Terror 
and closes with the abolition of royalty, the declaration of the Republic 
and the confinement of the Royal Family in the Temple. 



Citizeness Bonaparte, 

The period during which Josephine was called "Citizeness Bona- 
parte " is the romantic anrl eventful one beginning with her marriage, 
comprising the first Italian campaign and the Egyptian Expedition, and 
ending with the coup d'etat of Brumaire. 



FAMOUS WOMEN OF THE FRENCH COURT, 

The Wife of the First Consul, 

As wife of the First Consul, Josephine presided over the brilliant 
society which issued from the social chaos of the Revolution and which, 
together with striking portraits of its principal figures, is here vividly 
described. 

The Court of the Empress Josephine. 

The events which took place between the assumption by Napoleon 
of the imperial title and the end of 1807, including the magnificent 
coronation ceremonies at Paris and at Milan and the wonderful campaign 
of Austerlitz are here described, as well as the daily life and surroundings 
of Josephine at the summit of her career. 

The Happy Days of the Empress Marie Louise. 

The happiest part of Marie Louise's career as Empress of the 
French, dating from her marriage, the festivities of which were cele- 
brated with unexampled splendor, to the departure of the Grand Army 
for the disastrous Russian campaign, is the subject of this book. 

Marie Louise and the Decadence of the Empire. 

The period covered in this volume is the intensely dramatic decline 
of the French empire from the Russian campaign, when Marie Louise 
"had the world at her feet," to the desperate campaign of 1814 which 
concluded her brief but brilliant reign. 

Marie Louise and the Invasion of 1814. 

This volume takes the reader from the beginning of 1814 to 
Napoleon's second abdication and departure for Elba, In a military 
point of view this campaign, his first fought on French soil and resulting 
in his downfall and that of his dynasty, ranks, nevertheless, among his 
ablest, and the narrative of it is, perhaps, the most intensely interesting, 
the variations of fortune being so rapid and so momentous. 

Marie Louise, the Return from Elba and the Hundred Days. 

The final scenes of the Napoleonic drama are here unfolded — the 
imprisoned conqueror's life at Elba, his romantic escape and return to 
France, his almost miraculous resumption of power, the preparations for 
the last struggle and the climax of Waterloo and the definite restoration 
of Louis XVIII, closing the era begun in 1789. 



FAMOUS WOMEN OF THE FRENCH COURT. 



CRITICAL NOTICES. 



" A delightfully gossippy series." — Philadelphia Press. 

" This volume [' Marie Louise and the Decadence of the Empire'] 
is as fascinating as any in the series, and the whole can be read with 
great profit and enjoyment." — Hartford Couratit. 

" Readers of the author's preceding volumes will not need to be 
told that the present one is full of charai and interest, brilliant descrip- 
tion, and strong and clear historical sketches." — N'e7ii York Tribune. 

"The volumes are even more pictures of the times than of the 
unhappy occupants of the French throne. The style is clear and familiar, 
and the smaller courts of the period, the gossip of the oourt and the 
course of history, give interest other than biographical to the work." — 
Baliitfiore Stm. 

" M. de Saint-Amand makes the great personages of whom he writes 
very human. In this last volume he has brought to light much new 
material regarding the diplomatic relations between Napoleon and the 
Austrian court, and throughout the series he presents, with a wealth of 
detail, the ceremonious and private life of the courts." — San Francisco 
Argonaut. 

"The sketches, like the times to which they relate, are immensely 
dramatic. M. Saint-Amand writes with a vivid pen. He has filled 
himself with the history and the life of the times, and possesses the art 
of making them live in his pages. His books are capital reading, and 
remain as vivacious as idiomatic, and as pointed in the translation as in 
the original French." — The Indepeitdent. 

"The last volume of the highly interesting series is characterized 
by all that remarkable attractiveness of description, historical and per- 
sonal, that has made the former volumes of the series so popular. 
M. de Saint-Amand's pictures of court life and of the brilliant men and 
women that composed it, make the whole read with a freshness that is as 
fascinating as it is instructive." — Boston Home Journal. 



FAMOUS WOMEN OF THE FRENCH COURT, 

" M. de Saint-Amand's volumes are inspired with such brightness, 
knowledge, and appreciation, that their value as studies in a great 
historical epoch requires acknowledgement. Though written mainly to 
entertain in a wholesome way, they also instruct the reader and give 
him larger views. That they have not before been translated for publi- 
cation here is a little singular. Now, that their time has come, people 
should receive them gratefully while they read them with the attention 
they invite and deserve." — N. V. Times. 

"These volumes give animated pictures, romantic in coloring, 
intimate in detail, and entertaining from beginning to end. To the 
student of history they furnish the more charming details of gossip and 
court life which he hai; not found in his musty tomes ; while in the novice 
they must be the lode-stone leading to more minute research. The series 
is of more than transient value in that it teaches the facts of history 
through the medium of anecdote, description, and pen portraits ; this 
treatment having none of the dryness of history per se, but rather the 
brilliancy of romance." — Boston Times. 

*' The central figure of the lovely Josephine attracts sympathy and 
admiration as does hardly one other historical character. We have 
abundance of gossip of the less harmful kind, spirited portraits of men 
and women of note, glimpses here and there of the under-current of 
ambition and*anxiety that lay beneath the brilliant court life, anecdotes 
in abundance, and altogether a bustling, animated, splendidly shifting 
panorama of life in the First Empire. No such revelation of the private 
life of Napoleon and Josephine has hitherto been given to the world as 
in 'The Court of the Empress Josephine.' It is the autho"-'<s master- 
piece." — Christian Union. 



For saU by all booksellers, or sent ^ postpaid on receipt of price, by 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, 
743-745 Broadway, New York. 



The First /American Edition 



MEMOIRS OF 

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE 

By LOUIS ANTOINE FAUVELET DE BOURRIENNE 

His Pri^'aie Secretay-y 
"With 34 Full-page Portraits and Other Illustrations 

Edited by Col. R. W. PHIPPS. New and Revised Edition 



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Characteristic bindings in Half Morocco and Half Calf, specially designed 

for this work, can now be supplied 
The Set, 4 Vols., in a box, Half Morocco, gilt top, . . . $8.00 

" " " Half Calf, " ... 10.00 



CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, Publishers 
NEW YORK 



FOR sixty years Bourrienne's "Memoirs of Napoleon" 
has been a standard authority to which every one 
has turned for a graphic, entertaining picture of 
the man as he appeared to his intimate friend and Secre- 
tary. Bourrienne, who had been the friend and com- 
panion of Napoleon at school, became his Secretary in 
1797 and remained in this confidential position till 1802. 
His "Memoirs" has heretofore been accessible only in 
the English editions. It is now proposed to publish 
immediately in a popular Library Edition, in four i2mo 
volumes, an exact reprint of the latest English edition. 
This American edition will cohtain the thirty-four por- 
traits and ocher illustrations of the original, together with 
all the other features that give distinction to the work — 
the chronology of Napoleon's life, the prefaces to the 



BOURRIENNE'S ''NAPOLEON: 



several editions, the author's introduction, and the addi- 
tional matter which supplements Bourrienne's work, an 
account of the important events of the Hundred Days, 
of Napoleon's surrender to the English, and of his resi- 
dence and death at St. Helena, with anecdotes and illus- 
trative extracts from contemporary Memoirs. The per- 
sonality of one of the greatest figures in history is placed 
before the reader with remarkable fidelity and dramatic 
power by one who was the Emperor's confidant and the 
sharer of his thoughts and fortunes. The picture of the 
man Napoleon is of fascinating interest. Besides this, 
the book is full of the most interesting anecdotes, hon 
mots, character sketches, dramatic incidents, and the 
gossip of court and camp at one of the most stirring 
epochs of history, taken from contemporary Memoirs and 
incorporated in the work by the editors of the different 
editions. 



List of Portraits, Etc, 



NAPOLEON I. 
LETITIA RAMOLINO 
THE EMPRESS JOSEPH- 
INE 
EUGENE BEAUHARNAIS 
GENERAL KL^BER 
MARSHAL LANNES 
TALLEYRAND 
GENERAL DUROC 
MURAT, KING OF NAPLES 
GENERAL DESAIX 
GENERAL MOREAU 
HORTENSE BEAUHAR- 
NAIS 
THE EMPRESS JOSEPH- 
INE 
NAPOLEON I. 



THE DUG D'ENGHIEN 

GENERAL PICHEGRU 

MARSHAL NEY 

CAULAINCOURT, DUKE 
OF VICENZA 

MARSHAL DAVOUST 

CHARGE OF THE CUIR- 
ASSIERS AT EYLAU 

GENERAL JUNOT 

MARSHAL SOULT 

THE EMPRESS MARIA 
LOUISA 

GENERAL LASALLE 

COLORED MAP SHOW- 
ING NAPOLEON'S DO- 
MINION 

THE EMPRESS MARIA 
LOUISA 



MARSHAL MASSENA 
MARSHAL MACDONALD 
FAC-SIMILE OF THE EM- 
PEROR'S ABDICATION 
IN 1814 
NAPOLEON I. 
MARSHAL SOUCHET 
THE DUKE OF WELLING- 
TON 
PLANS OF BATTLE OF 

WATERLOO 
MARSHAL BLUCHER 
MARSHAL GOUVION ST. 

CYR 
MARSHAL NEY 
THE KING OF ROME 
GENERAL BESSIERES 



B o urrikxnf: s * ' .v^i p ol e on 



'^ If you want sometJmig to read, both interesting and 
amusing, get the Mi^moires de Bourrienne. These are the o?ily 
authentic Memoirs of Napoleon which have yet appeared. The 
style is not brilliant, but that only makes the?n the 7nore trust- 
worthy'' — Prince Metternich. 

**The writer was a man of uncommon penetration, 
and he enjoyed opportunities for intimate knowledge of 
Napoleon's life and character such as no other person 
possessed ; and the liveliness of his style renders the 
Memoirs interesting reading from the first page to the 
last. The volumes are enriched with a large number of 
excellent portraits." — The Academy. 

"It is a brilliant picture of Napoleon as he appeared 
in his daily life to one who held the unique position of 
friend, Minister and Secretary, depicting the personality 
of the Emperor with extraordinary vividness and truth- 
fulness. It is impossible not to recognize the great 
value of these Memoirs." — New York Times. 

" Af. de Bourrienne shows us the hero of Marengo and 
Austerlitz i?t his night-gown and slippers — with a trait de 
plume he, in a hundred instances, places the real man before 
us, with all of his personal habits and peculiarities of fnanner. 
temper and conversation.'' — From the Preface. 



THE SET, 4 VOLS., 12M0, IN A BOX, $5.00. 



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